Mount Vesuvius at Midnight
Albert Bierstadt (American, born Prussia [now Germany], 1830–1902)
1868
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 62 x 77 x 9 cm (24 7/16 x 30 5/16 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 42.6 x 60.7 cm (16 3/4 x 23 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of S. Livingstone Mather, Philip Richard Mather, Katherine Hoyt (Mather) Cross, Katherine Mather McLean and Constance Mather Bishop
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
For centuries, artists and tourists have been attracted to Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near Naples. While living in London in 1868, Albert Bierstadt heard that the volcano was active once again, and rushed immediately to Italy. It is not certain that he actually saw an eruption, although the resultant painting presents a convincing image of spewing lava and ash.
