Capodimonte Adds Its First Corot, 'The Bay of Naples with Castel dell'Ovo' (1828)

The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples has added its first work by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875). The Bay of Naples with Castel dell'Ovo, a small oil on paper mounted on panel measuring 34.2 by 60 centimetres, was painted in 1828 and went on view on Thursday 8 October in Room 78, on the second floor of the palace.

The painting was bought this summer by the Italian Ministry of Culture's Directorate-General for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, after it was flagged by the export office in Florence. Presenting it on 7 October, museum director Eike Schmidt thanked culture minister Alessandro Giuli and the officials involved for keeping the work in Italy. He noted that Corot, whom the museum regards as a forerunner of the Posillipo School, had been missing from its nineteenth-century holdings, and said the picture reflects the European character of art in Naples.

Corot first travelled to Italy in 1825 and, after stays in Rome, Narni and Tivoli, reached Naples in spring 1828, remaining about two months. He returned in 1834 and 1843, but according to the museum it was the first Italian journey that shaped his way of working, drawing him towards painting outdoors and towards the shifting colours produced by changing light.

The view, probably taken from the entrance to the Villa Reale, shows the bay in early morning light. The rising sun throws long shadows from Castel dell'Ovo, a grove of trees and the Real Casino di Pesca del Chiatamone across the water, while Vesuvius sits hidden behind the waterfront buildings on the left. Palazzo d'Aquino di Caramanico, the dome of the church of the Crocelle and the Gran Quartiere di Pizzofalcone can also be picked out, and a woman on the beach and sailors in a boat are the only figures.

The museum places the work among Corot's quick Neapolitan studies, in which he set aside darker tones for pale, almost silvery harmonies of sea and sky. It also links him to Anton Sminck van Pitloo, founder of the Posillipo School, describing their exchange as important for the flow of ideas between France and Naples, including the use of oil on paper for rapid studies from life.

Speakers at the presentation included Sonia Amadio of the Directorate-General, Isabella Valente and Massimo Visone of the University of Naples Federico II, and Maria Tamajo Contarini, the museum's curator of nineteenth-century art.