Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples from a Cave

About the Artwork

Adolf von Heydeck worked in Rome and later traveled south to Naples. This drawing presents that city’s most distinctive attraction: Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano that appears against an otherwise calm sky. Von Heydeck portrayed the scene from within a cave interior, contrasting the potentially overwhelming force of nature with the illusion of protection offered by distance and enclosed space.

Inscriptions

inscribed on secondary support [by artist?], lower right, in graphite: al Posilipo A Napoli 1820; on verso of secondary support, upper left, in graphite: 44/ ; upper left, in graphite: Al Posilipo a Napoli; unidentified collector's mark, verso of secondary support, upper right, stamped in blue ink: H [illegible] [surrounded by an oval double border]

Exhibition history

Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969). German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 1-July 13, 1980). Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984). The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004). The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-July 7, 2013). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

Quick Overview

Artist: Adolf von Heydeck (German, 1787–1856)
Date: 1820
Medium: watercolor with graphite; framing lines in pen and black ink
Dimensions: Sheet: 26.9 x 37.9 cm (10 9/16 x 14 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.5 x 37.9 cm (10 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Gift of the John B. Putnam Foundation
Accession no.: 1968.69

Provenance

1857: (artist's studio sale, R. Weigel'schen Kunstauctionslocale, May 25, 1857, no. 1597) ?-1968: (C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1968-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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