Mount Vesuvius at Midnight
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
unframed: 42.6 × 60.7 cm · framed: 62 × 77 × 9 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
American Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of S. Livingstone Mather, Philip Richard Mather, Katherine Hoyt (Mather) Cross, Katherine Mather McLean and Constance Mather Bishop
Accession Number
1949.541
Tags
About this artwork
For centuries, artists and tourists were attracted to Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near Naples. This awe-inspriing, not to say terrifying, natural wonder destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, and continued to erupt from time to time, as it does to this day. While living in London in 1868, Albert Bierstadt heard that Vesuvius had erupted once again, and rushed immediately to Italy. It is not certain that the artist actually saw the cataclysm, although the painting presents a convincing image ...