Bay of Naples
Christen Købke1843
The Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, United States
With its sharp focus and intense light The Bay of Naples is an alluring combination of Danish artist Christen Schiellerup Købke’s artistic vision and his firsthand experience of the Mediterranean landscape. A contemporary of fellow Danes the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), and sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (see this gallery), Købke was the preeminent painter of Denmark’s “Golden Age,” which lasted from 1820 to 1850.
After returning to Denmark in 1840 from a two-year stay in Italy, Købke worked out the finished composition of his colorful view of the serene Bay of Naples from sketches he had made at the site. He depicts five boats moored to a jetty that recedes into the magnificently blue water. Bright green seaweed-stained rocks and red-capped fishermen punctuate the foreground. Naples is visible in the distance at left. To the right is the medieval fortress Castle dell’Uovo, behind which looms the slumbering volcano, Mount Vesuvius.
- Title: Bay of Naples
- Creator: Christen Schiellerup Købke
- Creator Lifespan: 1810 - 1848
- Creator Nationality: Danish
- Creator Gender: male
- Creator Death Place: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Creator Birth Place: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Date Created: 1843
- Physical Location: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
- Physical Dimensions: 23 ¾ x 32 ¼ in. (60.3 x 81.9 cm)
- Subject Keywords: landscape; seascape; boats; rocks; shore; mountains; willage; town; city; man; oars; paddles; fishing; fishermen; fisherman; Castle dell’Uovol; Mount Vesuvius; Italy; sails; sailboats; hats
- Type: Painting
- Rights: https://toledomuseum.org/collection/image-resources/
- External Link: Toledo Museum of Art
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Fun Fact: With its sharp focus and intense light, The Bay of Naples is an alluring amalgam of Danish artist Christen Schiellerup Købke's artistic vision and his firsthand experience of the Mediterranean world. A contemporary of the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), the author Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), and the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (see 1991.64), Købke was the preeminent painter of Denmark's "Golden Age," which lasted from 1820 to 1850. After establishing himself in Copenhagen as a painter of portraits and landscapes in which clarity of light, brilliant colors, and compositional structure were his stylistic hallmarks, Købke embarked on his southern sojourn between the years 1838 and 1840. Though he spent time in Rome, it was Naples, the bay, and the archaeological sites around it that most captivated his attention. Having initially executed a small oil sketch on paper of the dramatic topography of the Bay of Naples, Købke worked up the finished composition on canvas a few years later, after returning to Denmark. It is a stunning study of a renowned locale under the midday heat of a summer scorcher. Just beyond vividly colored, seaweed-stained rocks in the foreground, five fishing boats brightly banded green and red are anchored before a jagged jetty, their bowlines and prow poles reflected in the still, shallow water. Fishermen—napping, readying their equipment, or discoursing—enliven the scene, as do others on the jetty itself, including a man standing on a boulder at the very center of the picture who observes four compatriots in a nearby vessel hauling in a fishing net. In the distance a section of Naples is visible, including Castel dell'Uovo, the famous medieval fortress. The scene is imbued with a sense of serenity that even the specter of volcanic destruction posed by the looming presence of Mt. Vesuvius cannot totally negate.
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