Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 115. Anton Sminck Pitloo Arnhem 1790 – 1837 Naples Sunset in a Landscape, c. 1811-1819 These pendants (cat. 114 and 115) representing a sunrise and a sunset in an Italian landscape demonstrate Pitloo’s wonderful sensitivity for fleeting effects of light and colour. The studies are signed, a rarity in the artist’s oeuvre. In both works, a strip of clear light blue indicates the sea on the horizon and trees immersed in shadows function as a repoussoir to create depth. The bright colours of the glowing skies are reflected in the clouds, which are painted in a particularly free, sketchy manner. In the study of sunrise (cat. 114), the building bathed in the soft pink light of dawn which appears in the distance has been tentatively identified as the Torre Astura, located a few kilometres south of Anzio.
These pendants (cat. 114 and 115) representing a sunrise and a sunset in an Italian landscape demonstrate Pitloo’s wonderful sensitivity for fleeting effects of light and colour. The studies are signed, a rarity in the artist’s oeuvre. In both works, a strip of clear light blue indicates the sea on the horizon and trees immersed in shadows function as a repoussoir to create depth. The bright colours of the glowing skies are reflected in the clouds, which are painted in a particularly free, sketchy manner. In the study of sunrise (cat. 114), the building bathed in the soft pink light of dawn which appears in the distance has been tentatively identified as the Torre Astura, located a few kilometres south of Anzio.