Pompeii

Robert S. Duncanson, Pompeii, 1855, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Richard Frates, 1983.95.158
Robert S. Duncanson, Pompeii, 1855, oil on canvas, 21 x 17 in. (53.3 x 43.2 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Richard Frates, 1983.95.158
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Artwork Details

Title
Pompeii
Artist
Date
1855
Location
Dimensions
21 x 17 in. (53.3 x 43.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. Richard Frates
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior — detail — column
  • Architecture Exterior — ruins
  • Cityscape — Italy — Pompeii
  • Landscape — phenomenon — volcano
Object Number
1983.95.158
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1983.95.158

Artwork Description

Robert Duncanson's patrons in Cincinnati sponsored his first trip to Europe in 1853, allowing him to participate in a rite of passage for American artists. He compared his skills with those of European painters and claimed, "Of all the landscapes I saw in Europe...I do not feel discouraged." Duncanson imagined Pompeii around the time of its first excavation in 1747, showing men in eighteenth-century costume admiring the ruins and searching for buried treasure. Such fanciful depictions were popular among nineteenth-century American patrons, who made the ancient city at the foot of Vesuvius a stop on their grand tours.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Works by this artist (3 items)

Ferol Sibley Warthen, Cotton Scene (Study for Hartselle, Alabama Post Office Mural), 1941, gouache on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, 1985.8.16
Cotton Scene (Study for Hartselle, Alabama Post Office…
Artist
Date1941
gouache on paperboard
Not on view
Ferol Sibley Warthen, Lighthouse, 1972, color woodcut, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Society of Washington Printmakers, 1973.116
Lighthouse
Artist
Date1972
color woodcut
Not on view
Ferol Sibley Warthen, Table Top, 1963, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1968.46
Table Top
Artist
Date1963
color woodcut on paper
Not on view

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