CARLO BONAVIA (active in Naples between 1751 and 1788) River Landscape with Fire Oil on canvas, 119X90.6 cm Provenance: Berlin, Lepke Auction (1914?), lot 140 (as Hubert Robert) Bibliography: RKD: https://rkd.nl/imageslite/1063616 The stylistic ingredients borrowed from Hubert Robert and in particular from Joseph Vernet find a skilful application in the cloud-crossed skies and the peculiar description of the landscape, which Bonavia expresses with genuine emancipation, to the extent that he transfigures the models. The influence of the French painter can be recognised in the thematic and stylistic features, but also in the perspective framing. The date of execution of this composition can be placed around 1760, the similarity with The Diana at the Bath formerly Heim-Gairac in Paris, dated 1758, offers interesting points of comparison, particularly in the subtle blue-greenish tones of silky fabric, and the River Landscape with Ruins sold at Sotheby's in New York on 25 January 2007, lot 111, which proposes a similar pictorial conduction. These qualities make it necessary to judge Carlo Bonavia as the only 18th century Neapolitan landscape painter of genuine European value, and the works under examination are undoubted evidence of this. Reference bibliography: F. Zeri, A. Gonzáles Palacios, A note on Vernet in Naples, in Antologia di Belle Arti, II, 1978, 5, p. 59 N. Spinosa, Pittura Napoletana del Settecento, dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples 1988, II, p. 157 N. Spinosa, L. Di Mauro, Vedute Napoletane del Settecento, Naples 1989, pp. 90-91 R. Muzii, Carlo Bonavia, in La pittura di paesaggio in Italia. Il Settecento, edited by A. Ottani Cavina and E. Calbi, Milan 2005, pp. 130-131, with previous bibliography