Anton Sminck van Pitloo, 'Vines at Báia', about 1820-30

Anton Sminck van Pitloo was born in the Netherlands. He studied in Paris, where he came under the influence of artists such as Joseph Xavier Bidauld and Jean-Victor Bertin. Both were staunch advocates of making open-air preparatory sketches in oil. Many landscape artists, inspired by trips to Italy and a desire to represent nature as truthfully as possible, made sketches from life that they would use in the studio as references for more finished oil paintings. Pitloo arrived in Italy in 1811 and remained there for the rest of his life.

In 1815 Pitloo moved from Rome to Naples. He opened a studio in the area of Posillipo and became a professor of landscape painting at the Neapolitan Academy. He drew a group of artists around him. Soon this group became known as the Posillipo School. They were increasingly concerned with trying to capture the mood of a landscape rather than accurately recording it. Pitloo’s oil sketches were produced with very expressive and dynamic brushwork. This technique is also often seen in his finished oil paintings, which have a loose, rapid and more emotive finish.

In this sketch Pitloo experimented with the effects of light when seen through the leaves of the vines. To capture these effects he used rapid brushstrokes and a range of different greens, perhaps working swiftly before the light conditions changed. For instance, the leaves of the tall tree in the centre of the picture have been painted with fluid strokes against the warm light of the sky.

The location of this scene, Baiae (Italian: Báia), has been recorded on a label stuck to the reverse of the canvas. Báia is on the north-west shore of the Gulf of Naples, only a short distance from Posillipo. It was a popular holiday destination for Ancient Romans and has numerous antique ruins, including the Terme di Báia, the Temple of Venus and the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl. The Sibyl was a celebrated prophetess and the subject of works by many Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Sandro Botticelli. Báia also featured in a painting by J.M.W. Turner, produced in 1823 after his first visit to Italy. Báia appeared in the Romantic poetry of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, in this sketch Pitloo chose not to focus on well-known landmarks but instead opted to depict a more prosaic scene. Rather than classical ruins, Pitloo shows us vines growing in a quiet and calm orchard.