Consalvo Carelli
(Arenella, Naples, 1818 – Naples, 1900)
View of Sorrento with a Shepherd Near the Cliffs
Watercolor on paper.
377 mm x 495 mm – 14 13/16 x 19 ½ in.
Antique gilded wooden frame.
Consalvo Carelli was a leading Italian painter and watercolorist of the Posillipo School, renowned for his luminous landscapes of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and his topographical views of the Campania coast. A protégé of the Bourbon royal family of Naples as well as the House of Orléans, he enjoyed significant international renown in the mid-19th century, winning the favor of European aristocratic collectors visiting Naples.
This print illustrates the artist’s romantic and picturesque style, combining a rigorous rendering of the coastal geology with a subtle mastery of Mediterranean light and atmospheric perspective.
It is a spectacular view of the Sorrento coast taken from the heights. In the foreground on the right, an imposing overhanging rocky promontory frames the composition, at the foot of which a shepherd dressed in traditional Neapolitan costume is walking. In the middle ground, the steep path opens up to a panoramic view of the Sorrento Peninsula, bordered by the characteristic cliffs jutting out into the blue waters of the Gulf of Naples, beneath a sky with subtle shades.
Similar works by Carelli depicting the Gulf of Naples, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast are held in several public and private collections, notably at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.
Condition: Very good condition.
