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    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    The Eruption of Vesuvius
    Pierre-Jacques Volaire. The Eruption of Vesuvius, 1771. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).
    AT-00001082

    Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more

    The Eruption of Vesuvius

    by Pierre-Jacques Volaire

    Inscriptions

    Inscribed bottom left: Vue de l'Eruption / du mont Vesuve du 14 / may 1771 peinte Sur le / lieu par le Che Volaire.

    Provenance

    London art market [according to 1981 letter from Ingvar Bergström in curatorial file]. Gunnar Trägårdh, Gothenburg, Sweden [according to Bergström letter cited above]. Sold by Trägårdh to Dr. Sven Langert, Gothenburg, Sweden, in the 1930s; sold by his wife, Majken Langert, Christie’s, London, 26 November 1971, no. 85, to Ray Perman acting on behalf of Cyril Humphris and Herner Wengraf, London [according to Bergström letter cited above]. Sold Sotheby’s, London, 19 April 1978, no. 156 (ill.), to P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., London [letter from Magdalen Elwes, Colnaghi, 7 September 1983, in curatorial file]; sold by Colnaghi to Richard L. Feigen and Co., New York, 1978 [letter from Elaine Banks, Feigen, 6 October 1983, in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1978.

    Exhibition history

    Detroit Institute of Arts and Art Institute of Chicago, "The Golden Age of Naples: Art and Civilization under the Bourbons, 1734–1805," 11 August–1 November 1981, 16 January–8 March 1982, no. 76. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, "Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe," from May 9-July 30, 2017; traveled to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota from September 10-December 31, 2017, finally at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio from February 25-May 20, 2018, fig. 178.

    Publications

    Ingvar Berström, "Nagra Vesuvius-Bilder Fran 1700-Talet, Apropos ett Okänt Verk av Jacques Volaire," in Festskrift tillägnad Axel Boëthius, July 18, 1949 (Gothenburg, 1949), pp. 15–29, fig. 1. Jacques Foucart in Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, De David à Delacroix: La Peinture française de 1774 à 1830, exh. cat., 1974, p. 668, under no. 203. Benedict Nicolson, "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: General," Burlington Magazine 118 (1976), p. 40, fig. 39. Marina Causa Picone, "Volaire," Antologia di belle arti 2, no. 5 (1978), p. 38. Madeline Pinault in Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, La Révolution française et l’Europe, 1789–1799, exh. cat., 1989, p. 220, under no. 309. Fifty Paintings, 1535–1825: To Celebrate Ten Years of Collaboration between the Matthiesen Gallery, London, and Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York (London and New York, 1993), p. 170. Susan Wise in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1996), pp. 156–59 (ill.). Didier Aaron, "15: Pierre-Jacques Volaire," Catalogue, (Archieve D'Imprimer en Aout, 2006. Peter Björn Kerber, Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe, exh. cat. (J. P. Getty Museum, 2017), p. 156, fig. 178, 158-159, 219, 242.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Pierre-Jacques Volaire (French, 1729–1799)
    Date
    1771
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    116.8 × 242.9 cm (46 × 95 5/8 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    oil on canvas
    Style
    18th Century
    Place
    France
    Department
    Painting and Sculpture of Europe
    Credit line
    Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
    Accession no.
    1978.426

    More by Pierre-Jacques Volaire in museum collections

    • Shawled Woman Seen from the Back

      Pierre-Jacques Volaire

      n.d. · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00002089
    • Seated Woman

      Pierre-Jacques Volaire

      n.d. · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00002090
    • Dancing Woman

      Pierre-Jacques Volaire

      n.d. · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00004211
    • Man Carrying a Dead Dog

      Pierre-Jacques Volaire

      n.d. · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00004408

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Open-access museum record · AT-00001082

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