Portrait of a Man, Full-Length, with Mount Vesuvius Beyond (Primary Title)
Portrait of a Young Man, Full-Length, with Mt. Vesuvius Beyond (Former Title)
Louis Gauffier, French, active in Italy, 1761 - 1801 (Artist)
This small-format portrait is one of a multitude of
examples of Gauffier’s preparatory sketches for larger
portraits commissioned by his traveling clientele who
were making their Grand Tour in Italy. His young sitter
poses with one elbow propped on the remnant of a wall
dating from ancient Rome, apparently free of worry
while a steady stream of smoke issues from the mouth
of Mount Vesuvius over the majestic bay of Naples in
the background. From 1791 to 1801, the artist sojourned
in Florence and Rome, acquainting himself with other
Neoclassical painters and making a successful career
as a portraitist while the French Revolution bloodied
the soil of his home country. Although Gauffier visited
Naples only once, in September of 1788, he frequently
adapted the sketches he made there to serve as the
backdrops for his souvenir portraits of Grand Tourists.
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection
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