The Sea from Capri

The American landscape painter William Stanley Haseltine visited Capri in 1858 after arriving in Italy with fellow painters Thomas Worthington Whittredge and Emanuel Leutze. While there, Haseltine stayed in the Carthusian Monastery of St. John, which sat atop the limestone cliff depicted in this painting. In the distance is the town of Capri; in the foreground are the ruins of the Villa Jovis, erected by Emperor Tiberius on the summit of the eastern cliffs in the first century. The beauty of the scene is amplified by Haseltine’s ability to recreate the diffused, atmospheric light of dawn.