HENRI-JOSEPH HARPIGNIES (1819 - 1916)

 
 
THE BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS
IN THE BACKGROUND
 
 
Inscribed in pen & ink l.l. Naples, signed l.r. h harpignies
Watercolour on paper
19 x 29 cm
 
 
 
 
 
The present work is a one of just a few examples of Harpignies' Neapolitan subjects painted in watercolour. These views are all taken from the same point in the bay, along Margellina, and they are all closely comparable to ours in their handling, suggesting that they most probably all date to Harpignies' 1864 visit. Of those known to us, the closest to the present sheet was in fact previously with us, which shows a similar boat near the shoreline and a hanging line on the beach (see fig. I).  
 
 
 
Further representative examples include those sold at Rouillac, Cheverny, 05.06.2005, lot 36 (sold for €19,000) where it was acquired and later sold by Didier Aaron, Paris (see fig. II); another sold at Aguttes, Lyon, 31.03.2016, lot 29 (sold for €16,575); and the third, in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (see fig. III). 
 
 
Harpignies also painted a small number of views in oils of Naples and its environs, with a view of Massalubiansa now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux (inv. no. FH 866-163) and a similar large-scale work in the Princeton University Art Museum (acc. no. 1979-53).