View of Pompeii
Alessandro La Volpe, 1864, oil on canvas, cm 88x131, Museo dell'Ottocento Fondazione di Persio-Pallotta, Pescara
(Lucera 1820 – Roma 1887)
A pupil of Gabriele Smargiassi at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, Alessandro La Volpe absorbed the landscape tradition of Pitloo, developing a style characterized by delicate tonal modulations and refined variations of light. After exhibiting at the Bourbon Biennale of 1848, he accompanied the Duke of Leuchtenberg to Sicily and Egypt in 1851, executing numerous views of local antiquities. His career briefly aligned with the Scuola di Staggia in the Sienese countryside, working alongside Serafino De Tivoli, Carlo Ademollo, and Saverio Altamura in pursuit of open-air realism. A regular contributor to the Neapolitan Promotrice exhibitions, La Volpe sent a View of Pompeii to the Paris International Exposition of 1867, illustrating the European recognition of his work prior to his relocation to Rome, where he spent his final years in severe financial hardship.
