Antonio Sminck Pitloo Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Landscape teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, founder and undisputed protagonist of the "Posillipo Academy".
Following the lessons of Joseph W. Turner and Camille Corot, he was one of the first to adopt the method of painting al fresco (in the open air). Read the full biography

Landscape teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, founder and undisputed protagonist of the "Posillipo Academy".
Following the lessons of Joseph W. Turner and Camille Corot, he was one of the first to adopt the method of painting al fresco (in the open air). Pitloo believed that the artist should remain true to the landscape, gather his first impressions in research and sketches through real-life observations, and firmly reject the stereotypes and breathtaking panoramas created for Grand Tour visitors specifically seeking souvenirs. His artistic activity, far from the main figurative culture of popular tastes with a mythical, pathetic and sentimental background, was decisive for the development of Neapolitan landscape painting. Following the artist's premature death due to a cholera epidemic, most of the works from his studio were sold by his daughter Sofia to the Count of Correal and are now preserved in the Correal Museum in Sorrento. There are others in the Capodimonte series. Among the most important paintings are the Fire of the San Carlo Theater in Naples (1816), the Ischia Landscape with the Aragonese Castle (circa 1824), the Baia Castle at the Museo Correale in Sorrento.