Gioacchino Toma, The Ash Rain of Mount Vesuvius, 19th Century, Oil on Canvas, Framed

Gioacchino Toma (Galatina, Italy, 1836 – Naples, Italy, 1891)
Title: The Ash Rain of Mount Vesuvius
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 93 x 150 cm – with frame 112 x 166 x 8 cm
Shaped, carved and gilded wooden frame

Expertise by Professor Dario Durbé of the Nuovo Archivio dei Macchiaioli

Publications: Gioacchino Toma 1836-1891, exhibition and catalogue curated by Bruno Mantura and Nicola Spinosa, (25 June - 30 July 1995), Spoleto, Palazzo Racani Arroni, p. 110.

Gioacchino Toma (1836-1891) was an Italian art instructor and painter, noted primarily for historic, realistic and genre subjects in a romantic style. Motherless and fatherless, he spent most of his childhood in a poorhouse where he learned to draw self-taught. When he was 18, he moved to Naples and apprenticed with Alessandro Fergola and Domenico Morelli (1823-1901). He worked as an ornamental painter, taught drawing in municipal school and he also became a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Art at Naples.
This large-format painting, represents an impressive depiction of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1880. The view is from the cobbled shore road across the harbour bay to Mount Vesuvius, which is completely obscured by smoke and ash, and whose eruption can be seen in the clouds as the fire lights up. In the foreground, a gathering of women, sitting on the ground and leaning against a pier wall with lit candles, praying in the face of misfortune. A girl in the middle of this group holds a devotional image towards the burning Vesuvius. On the left of the painting some passers-by can be seen with umbrellas to protect themselves from the ash rain, and next to them there are three young girls each holding a tray. To the left in the background, the landscape brightens up with ghostly light effects.