Castle and Waterfall

A waterfall crashes past crumbling buildings and a rocky outcrop, bathed in golden sunlight. Two figures – one carrying a net – ready themselves to descend and catch fish from the river below.  

Carlo Bonavia (active 1740-1788) trained in the Neapolitan landscape tradition of the Italian artist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) but was strongly influenced by the palette and atmosphere of paintings by the French painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), who had visited Naples, Italy, in 1737 and 1746. Bonavia’s whimsical Neapolitan landscapes were hugely popular with wealthy patrons and tourists who flocked to Naples during European travels and were keen to take home a souvenir. One foreign ambassador, stationed in Naples, owned seventeen works by Bonavia.