Date
1857
Object Type
Painting
Subject
Sunset after a Storm at Porto Venere in the Gulf of La Spezia
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. On long-term loan and on display at the Galleria d'Arte moderna in Milan, since 1902
About The Work
Following his initial training at the Düsseldorf Academy, Andreas Achenbach moved to Munich in 1835, where his interaction with the Danish painter Louis Gurlitt guided him toward a more pronounced realism. Throughout the late 1830s and 1840s, he traveled extensively across Europe, from Norway to Southern Italy, as well as through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, developing a particular mastery in dramatic storm-tossed seascapes. His time in Italy inspired a series of works, including View of the Sicilian Coast (Baltimora, The Walters Art Museum, 1847) and Sunset after a Storm on the Coast of Sicily (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1853). In 1857, Achenbach achieved a major triumph at the annual Brera Exhibition with Tramonto dopo un temporale a Porto Venere nel Golfo della Spezia. The painting, which was also reproduced as an engraving, won over critics and the public alike for its ability to capture shifting atmospheric light with a raw intensity that drew comparisons to Byron's poetry. This masterpiece is closely linked to another stormy seascape in the Brera collections, Marina agitata sotto un cielo burrascoso, which seems to capture the exact same landscape from the opposite perspective: rather than looking out from within the village of Porto Venere, it views the scene from the outside, framed by the ancient circular tower dominating the clifftop fortress.
Title
Tramonto dopo un temporale a Porto Venere nel golfo della Spezia
Creator
Andreas Achenbach
Subject
Sunset after a Storm at Porto Venere in the Gulf of La Spezia
Object Type
Painting
Original Function
Collection
Date
1857
Inscriptions
Signed and dated lower left: "A. Achenbach / 1857"
Crest
On the stretcher, paper label: "Proprietà della / Regia Accademia di Belle arti / n. 1".
Technique / Support
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
cm 86 x 106
Acquisition
Purchased from Andreas Achenbach at the Esposizione delle opere di Belle Arti nelle gallerie dell'I.R. Accademia, 1857
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. On long-term loan and on display at the Galleria d'Arte moderna in Milan, since 1902
Inventory number
Collezione dell'Accademia di Brera, GAM 375
Bibliography
Sperken, Christine Farese. Entry no. 3. In Pinacoteca di Brera. Dipinti dell’Ottocento e del Novecento. Collezioni dell’Accademia e della Pinacoteca, vol. 1, Musei e Gallerie di Milano, edited by Fernando Mazzocca. Milano: Mondadori Electa, 1993. 19-21, ill.
Conservation status
Fair
Unique identifier
0302201011