A dramatic painting of Mount Vesuvius erupting in 1774, by a landscape artist said to have witnessed the event, has sold for £25,400 at auction in Edinburgh. The work by German painter Jakob Philipp Hackert went under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull on Wednesday, within its pre-sale estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.
According to a biography of Hackert by his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the artist witnessed the eruption in Italy and made a series of live sketches and studies of it. He later used these as reference for paintings of the scene after he returned to Rome, where he had settled in 1768.
Romey Clark, associate fine art specialist at Lyon & Turnbull, described the work as notable for its dramatic immediacy. "Flames and molten lava burst violently from the crater while thick clouds of smoke billow upward into the night sky," she said. Unlike traditional panoramic views, Hackert positions the viewer close to the action, offering a more immersive vision of the eruption itself.
The 1774 eruption came at the height of the Grand Tour, when wealthy British and European travellers visited classical sites across Europe. Views of Mount Vesuvius were particularly popular souvenirs, and Hackert produced several paintings of the volcano erupting.
The painting was sold in Lyon & Turnbull's two-day Five Centuries sale. Clark added: "We are delighted such a fascinating, historical work has found a new home with an international collector."
