PIERRE-JACQUES VOLAIRE (1720-1799)
Mount Vesuvius (1,281m - 4,203ft)
Italy
1. In Eruption du Vésuve vue de Portici, 1771, oil on canvas, MBA de Nantes, France
2. In Eruption du Vésuve du 14 Mai 1771, oil on canvas, Karlsruhe, Staalische Kunsthhalle
3. In Eruption du Vésuve vue de l'Atrio del Cavallo, 1770-90, Château de Maisons, France
4. In Eruption du Vésuve, baie de Naples, 1785, Getty Center, Los Angeles
5. Eruption du Vésuve, baie de Naples, 1780, Museum of Fine Arts, San Franscico
6. Detail In Eruption du Vésuve du 14 Mai 1771, oil on canvas, Karlsruhe, Staalische Kunsthhalle
The views of Vesuvius in eruption painted by Pierre-Jacques Volaire are sometimes very similar and only slight details differentiate them, such as, for instance, the location of a boat in Portici Bay, or the displacement of a group of fishermen, or the intensity of the magma flow. By examining the paintings in detail, one can note that some characters are very close to the caldera (painting n° 6) ; even fishermen despite the fury of the volcano do not seem to fear the danger (painting n° 4 & n°5).
On almost every painting the Bay of Naples faces Vesuvius in eruption, often at night, unfolding its flame tongue under a lunar light. Volaire thus achieves a magnificent light effect, resulting from the contrast of the warm tones of the volcano with the cold light of the moon. The presence of groups of characters observing the incandescent magma creates a perspective between the natural element, the characters and the viewer.
One of these paintings (painting n° 3) was commissioned by the Farmer General Jacques-Onésyme Bergeret de Grandcourt, who, guided by Volaire, climbed the volcano, as reported in his travel diary.
The painter
Pierre-Jacques Volaire (1720-1799) was a french painter, from a well-known family of painters in Toulon. His own career began workintg at the painting workshop of the naval dockyard of Toulon, when Joseph Vernet arrived in 1754. The latter, recognized artist, got an order of King Louis XV: Ports of France. To make these landscape paintings, he attached the young Volaire. The two painters travelled together for eight years, painting the ports of Bordeaux, Bayonne, La Rochelle and Dieppe.
Volaire then leaved Vernet to go to Italy, to Naples and he settled there permanently. During his stay, the Chevalier Volaire, as he called himself, worked on landscapes, seascapes and views of Vesuvius. Night scenes became his specialty and the theme of the eruption of Vesuvius, became the almost exclusive subject of the artist's works which met with great success in the eighteenth century. Indeed, the interest shown by his European contemporaries in the extraordinary manifestations of nature leads them to a thorough study of the volcano, which experienced, between 1750 and 1800, an intense activity.
Back in France, the Chevalier Volaire becomes a corresponding member of the Marseille Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He exhibited in Paris only three times. He was denied official recognition in France when, in 1786, he tried to sell one of his Vesuvius pictures to Louis XVI ; at the time, the work of a landscape painter - especially one who employed sensational effects - was not seen to be very worthy. Volaire also created pastels and drawings, and his works were frequently engraved.