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Nicolino Calyo
The Great Ash Eruption from the New Volcano, August 8 1831.
Drawing in gouache, black chalk and watercolor
1831
Nicolino Calyo watercolor
432 x 558 mm 17 x 22 inches
description
NICOLINO CALYO Naples, Italy 1799 - 1884 New York
The Great Ash Eruption from the New Volcano, August 8 1831.
Drawing in gouache, black chalk and watercolor. Titled in Italian in the lower margin, by the artist, “La Grande Eruzione a Cenere dal Nuovo Vulcano, acceduto il di 8 agosto 1831, alle ore 3 PM N.E. ¾ N.” Annotated verso: “The new Volcano drawn by W. Nicolino Calyo from on Board His Britannic Majesty’s Cutter Hind, under the command of Lt. Thomas Coleman on the 8th of August 1831.”
In fine condition, some slight repairs to the edges of the brown border, and a minor water stain line at the lower right margin. The colors very fresh.
This remarkable image constitutes one of the extremely rare examples of a volcanic eruption taken on the spot[1]. The eruption now known as the Ferdinandea eruption, was the cause of the ‘blue and green suns’ observed in August 1831. Calyo must have been a supernumerary on board the Hind. It is notable that even by 1831, before he arrived in the United States, he had found his most notable medium, large scale gouache paintings.
Calyo came from an aristocratic Neapolitan family and after studying at the Naples Academy left Naples in 1830 when he joined the rebellion against the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV. Calyo married and travelled through Europe until he arrived in the United States in 1834. By 1835 he moved to New York City. His career in the United States was long and very successful. Many of his New York paintings record the fires which plagued New York in the 19th century. His favored medium was gouache.[2]
Calyo must have been a person of broad interests, and as a successful artist he collected in a substantial but idiosyncratic manner, in line with the dramatic subjects of his paintings. His home was said to be “a museum of curiosities... rare engravings, etchings... relics of almost every part of the world”. [3]
432 x 558 mm 17 x 22 inches
[1] Garrison, C., Kilburn, C., Smart, D., and Edwards, S.: The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century?, Clim. Past, 17, 2607–2632, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021, 2021.
[2] Margaret Sloane Patterson, “Nicolino Calyo and His Paintings of the Great Fire of New York, December 16th and 17th, 1835,” in The American Art Journal, XIV, Spring 1982, pp 4- 22.
[3] Ibid.
The Great Ash Eruption from the New Volcano, August 8 1831.
Drawing in gouache, black chalk and watercolor. Titled in Italian in the lower margin, by the artist, “La Grande Eruzione a Cenere dal Nuovo Vulcano, acceduto il di 8 agosto 1831, alle ore 3 PM N.E. ¾ N.” Annotated verso: “The new Volcano drawn by W. Nicolino Calyo from on Board His Britannic Majesty’s Cutter Hind, under the command of Lt. Thomas Coleman on the 8th of August 1831.”
In fine condition, some slight repairs to the edges of the brown border, and a minor water stain line at the lower right margin. The colors very fresh.
This remarkable image constitutes one of the extremely rare examples of a volcanic eruption taken on the spot[1]. The eruption now known as the Ferdinandea eruption, was the cause of the ‘blue and green suns’ observed in August 1831. Calyo must have been a supernumerary on board the Hind. It is notable that even by 1831, before he arrived in the United States, he had found his most notable medium, large scale gouache paintings.
Calyo came from an aristocratic Neapolitan family and after studying at the Naples Academy left Naples in 1830 when he joined the rebellion against the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV. Calyo married and travelled through Europe until he arrived in the United States in 1834. By 1835 he moved to New York City. His career in the United States was long and very successful. Many of his New York paintings record the fires which plagued New York in the 19th century. His favored medium was gouache.[2]
Calyo must have been a person of broad interests, and as a successful artist he collected in a substantial but idiosyncratic manner, in line with the dramatic subjects of his paintings. His home was said to be “a museum of curiosities... rare engravings, etchings... relics of almost every part of the world”. [3]
432 x 558 mm 17 x 22 inches
[1] Garrison, C., Kilburn, C., Smart, D., and Edwards, S.: The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century?, Clim. Past, 17, 2607–2632, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021, 2021.
[2] Margaret Sloane Patterson, “Nicolino Calyo and His Paintings of the Great Fire of New York, December 16th and 17th, 1835,” in The American Art Journal, XIV, Spring 1982, pp 4- 22.
[3] Ibid.
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