The support of the Imperial Court came at a crucial moment for Rebell, who with the political reverses of 1815 had lost the favor of Eugene de Beauharnais, viceroy of Milan and Joachim Murat, king of the Two Sicilies, at whose courts he had worked successfully since his arrival in Italy. It was during his stay at the Neapolitan Court, from 1812 to 1815, that Rebell painted for Carolina Murat a series of thirteen views of Naples and its surroundings (now partly in the Château de Chantilly) which brought him a resounding success.
The success of these canvases induced Rebell, already in Naples and then returning to Rome, to specialize in this theme, thus attracting an aristocratic clientele of an international character, including the Bavarian royal house, the Prince of Lichtenstein and, indeed, the Austrian royal house. In 1819, in fact, on the occasion of an exhibition of German artists living in Rome set up in Palazzo Caffarelli in Campidoglio, Rebell received from Francesco I, father of Maria Luigia, the commission for the suite of four views now in the Osterreichische Galerie in Vienna. Generally considered the pendant of no. 240, in reality the painting in question is smaller by about twenty centimetres per side and precedes it by a year. Like it, however, it is “of great effect, if not of equal truth” (Ricci 1896); the emphasis is entirely shifted to the dramatic and romantic effect of the nocturnal or evening storm rather than that of the serene view of Vanvitellian tradition. Similarities can still be found with the Tempest near the Arch of Miseno on the coast of Fusaro (1819) preserved in Vienna and with the smaller canvas (42 x 64 cm) with a scene of a shipwreck near a coast dated 1824, known from a photo formerly by H. Voss, today in the photo library of the Louvre.
The success of this canvas and its pendant is witnessed by the copy that Duchess Luisa Maria of Bourbon commissioned from Erminio Fanti in 1856, now in the Pizzarotti collection.
Bibliography
Martini 1870a, p. 59;
Pigorini 1887, p. 28;
Ceruti 1894, p. 47;
Ricci 1896, p. 372;
Sorrentino 1931b, p. 28;
Quintavalle A.O. 1939, p. 331;
AA.VV. 1972, n. 298;
Mecenatismo… 1974, pp. XXXV, 69;
Pinto 1982b, p. 987 fig. 967;
AA.VV. 1989;
Ferrari 1992, p. 136 fig. 4.44;
Cirillo 1992a, p. 28 n. 99;
Fornari Schianchi 1997b, p. 105.Restorations
1967;
1992 (C. Alessandrini).Mostre
Rio de Janeiro-San Paolo 1989;
Bologna 1992;
Colorno 1992.Marco Riccomini, in Fornari Schianchi L. (ed.), Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Catalogo delle opere. Il Settecento, Franco Maria Ricci, Milano, 2000.