Michael Wutky

MICHAEL WUTKY (Austria, 1739 - Vienna, 1822/23)
"View of Tivoli."
Watercolor on paper.
Signed.
Measurements: 37 x 53 cm; 52 x 66 cm (frame).
The warm illumination that unifies the whole and the precision of the drawing allows, in fact, to relate this landscape to Michael Wultky. The artist offers a landscape of great spatial depth in which the human presence can be appreciated, however, the dimensions and the magnificence of nature evidence the landscape protagonism of the scene.
Michael Wutky was an Austrian rococo landscape painter specialized in Italian scenes, famous for his paintings of the eruptions of Vesuvius. In 1759 he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Martin van Meytens. Initially a history painter, he was not very successful in this field. In 1770, he became a member of the Academy. When he did not receive a scholarship to travel to Italy, he began his artistic training on his own. Once there, he devoted himself to landscape painting, which turned out to be his true forte.
He is best known for the pictures he painted during a stay in Naples. Vesuvius was particularly active at the time, and he took the opportunity to capture close-up scenes of eruptions and lava flows. Accompanied by the English diplomat and volcanologist Sir William Hamilton, he even made dangerous ascents of the volcano as close to the crater as possible. Until the advent of photography, his paintings were considered the most scientifically accurate representations of a volcanic eruption. He was commissioned by Count Lamberg, an Austrian collector who, like him, resided at the embassy in Naples. Before returning to Vienna he made numerous ruin paintings in Rome, where he became a professor at the Accademia. In 1805 he returned to Italy to collect new material.