Hamilton, Sir William (1730-1803)

Sotheby's Milan, Old Master Paintings, 19th Century Paintings, Furniture, Works of Art and Rare Books, 16 November 2010, lot, 180.

Brunet III, 31; Lewine, p. 232.

Sir William Hamilton, Plenipotentiary Minister of the British Government at the Court of Naples and an ardent student of antiquity and natural phenomena, commissioned the artist Pietro Fabris to accompany him on more than twenty ascents of Mount Vesuvius. From these often hazardous expeditions emerged the first series of plates, published in 1776, which documented with unprecedented immediacy the volcanic activity of the region.

In 1779 a supplementary volume was issued, recording the dramatic eruption of Vesuvius in August of that year. Fabris’s finely observed drawings present sweeping views of Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and the Solfatara, alongside detailed renderings of volcanic rocks, ash, and flowing lava. Hamilton himself frequently appears within the compositions, readily identifiable by his characteristic red coat, serving both as witness and protagonist in this remarkable visual record of Enlightenment science.