The Mole at Portici
by REBELL, Joseph, Oil on canvas, 38 x 55 cm
This small painting depicts the harbour of a small fishing village near Naples.
Rebell’s landscape works show the strong influence of English and French landscape painters - artists who Rebell met while in Italy - and their penchant for realism. Although his landscapes have a rather understated emotionality they nevertheless demonstrate a certain atmospheric quality that places Rebell in the company of the early landscape realists. In Rebell’s work, idealistic composition and heroic staffage groupings are replaced by scenes filled with serenity and sensitive light plays.