The Grotto of Posillipo, Naples

Gustaf Söderberg

1820 · Oil on paper, laid down on Masonite · European Paintings

The Grotto of Posillipo is actually a nearly half-mile-long tunnel that was cut through the rocky promontory separating Naples from the town of Posillipo in the first century. It became an icon of the Grand Tour in the eighteenth century, in part because of its proximity to Virgil’s Tomb, which is situated above it. Söderberg was the first Swedish painter to take up plein-air painting, which he learned from the French landscapist Achille-Etna Michallon. He made this study during their journey to southern Italy and Sicily in 1820; in a letter dated April 8, Söderberg mentions that he had visited the Grotto that morning.

Artist

Gustaf Söderberg

Date

1820

Medium

Oil on paper, laid down on Masonite

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Thaw Collection, Jointly Owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Eugene V. Thaw, 2009