Sea Storm near the Arco di Miseno near Miliscola, Looking toward Nisida

Rebell’s painting has absolutely nothing in common with the softly lit Italian landscapes that were popular in his day. His theme is nature in all its primal force. Light bursts dramatically through the dark blanket of clouds and a natural rock arch, the Arco di Miseno, near Naples. The muddy brown sea has been whipped up in the storm, the small fishing boat is a plaything of the waves. At any moment it could smash against the rocks and sink. Utterly “moved and terrified” was Dorothea Schlegel’s reaction to the painting, as she wrote in March 1820 to her husband, the philosopher Friedrich Schlegel. This and three further views from the Naples area were commissioned by Emperor Francis I.

Not on display