Painting Apragopolis: Foreign Painters on Capri: 1826 - 1890

In the popular imagination, there are few geographic locations which may be argued to hold as great or as emotionally powerful a mystique as the island of Capri, now a constituent of the Republic of Italy, and now, also, a site perhaps most popularly familiar within the outside world as a modern and internationally popular summer tourist resort. Most commonly, the island would appear to be regarded either on account of the prominence of its natural beauty, which boasts not only a dramatic variety of scenery, but also an abundance of rare plants and flowers, or, by contrast, for its place in the annals of ancient history, and specifically, for having once served as the private retreat of two Roman emperors, Augustus and Tiberius.
But although some histories of Capri appear to be well-known, to scholars and tourists alike, the island’s seemingly equally remarkable place in the history of nineteenth-century painting would seem to remain, alas, largely overlooked. Perhaps on account of its connections to ancient cultures, perhaps on account of its geographic isolation, or, simply, perhaps on account of the fact that Capri is for many valid reasons an inherently enjoyable place to be, the “art-history” of Capri, especially beginning in the second quarter of nineteenth century, might be retrieved from obscurity as one of the most fascinating and internationally diverse art-historical movements to have taken place over the course of the nineteenth century. Over the course of five essays, therefore, this thesis seeks to understand Capri as a site of major interest to visual artists over the course of much of the nineteenth century.