A View of Ischia

A View of Ischia from 1841 in the Royal Collection depicts the volcanic island in the Bay of Naples that was a favorite subject for artists visiting southern Italy. Stanfield’s Neapolitan subjects, painted for Queen Victoria, demonstrate the esteem in which the royal family held his abilities as both marine and landscape painter. His precise knowledge of ship rigging, hull construction, and wave behavior—derived from actual seafaring—gave his marine paintings an authority that distinguished them from the merely decorative seascapes of rivals who had never sailed.

The volcanic island provides a dramatic silhouette against the Mediterranean sky and sea. Stanfield renders the distinctive geological forms of the island with the precision he brought to all his coastal subjects.