(Vienna 1787–1828 Dresden)

Fishermen in the Bay of Naples. 1820.

Oil on canvas.

Signed and dated lower right: Jos: Rebell 1820.

45.5 × 67 cm.

Provenance:
Swiss private collection.

Dr. Sabine Grabner of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, to whom we owe our thanks for her help in cataloguing this work, highlights the fine quality of the work and identifies the architecture depicted in the background as Palazzo della Regina Giovanna, also known as Donn´Anna, which is located between Naples and Posillipo by the sea.

Dr. Grabner points out that in Hormayr’s register of works for 1820 a picture with the title “Ansicht del Palazzo della Regina Giovanna” (view of Palazzo della Regina Giovanna) was mentioned, with the comment “für Herrn Sykes nach London” (For Mr Sykes, London). Rebell produced a work with the same view but a different grouping of figures in 1821 for “Grafen v. Gaurieff nach Paris” (Count von Gaurieff, Paris), a work which is now in the Lentos art museum in Linz.

The view shown here appears to have been very popular, since Rebell painted a further two depictions in 1822 (one went to a Mr Demidoff in Rome, the other to Ritter von Rothschild in Naples) as well as a further one in 1823, which entered the collection of the Duke of Nassau.

In Autumn 2020 Josef Rebell’s work is to be showcased in a largescale exhibition at the Belvedere in Vienna, which will be curated by Dr. Sabine Grabner.