Lot 1506 Dα

Dr. Luisa Martorelli attributes the present work to the Russian Romantic painter Sylvester Feodosievic Shchedrin, describing it as an important addition to his oeuvre.
Shchedrin travelled to Italy in 1818, first going to Rome, then to Naples, and later settling in Sorrent. He was an important influence on the so-called "Scuola di Posillipo" of Southern Italian landscape painters active throughout the 1820s and 1830s. They were deeply impressed by the Russian artist's rendering of atmospheric phenomena, landscape, and nature (for more on this relationship, see: Il pittore russo Silvestr Šcedrin in Italia, in Luce d'Italia/ Silvestr Pitloo´s ed i suoi contemporanei russi / dipinti, disegni e acquerelli dalla collezione del Museo Russo, Formia 2007).
Shchedrin visited the same locations again and again, painting them from different perspectives in differing light conditions, thus becoming a forerunner of “plein air” painting (G. Goldovskij, E. Petrova, C. Poppi, La pittura russa nell´etá romantica, Bologna 1990, p. 73). The present work testifies to this manner of working. It can be compared to two other works by the artist: One painting housed in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow depicting the Bay of Sorrent, measuring 44 x 61 cm and dated 1826, and a significantly smaller version of the motif in private ownership. The present work represents a link between the principal sketch and the fully finished version in Moscow. All three paintings share the same atmospheric intensity for which this artist was so admired.
Shchedrin's works were popular among collectors and European aristocrats taking the Grand Tour throughout his lifetime. He spent the majority of his adult life in Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast, but many of his most famous works are now housed in Russian museums, although there may still be many paintings - like the present one - still waiting to be discovered in Italian collections.