WUTKY, Michael

(b. 1739 Krems, d. 1822 Wien)

Austrian painter. In his time he was a highly successful landscapist whose pictures were extremely popular amongst the important collectors in Europe. Today he has sunk into obscurity.

Wutky made his first trip to Italy in 1771-72, and thereafter divided his career between his native Vienna and Italy, which he revisited in 1777-79, 1781-83 and 1795-1801. His views of Italy, and in particular of Vesuvius, earned him a considerable reputation. He numbered the Borghese, Graf Harrach, Lord Bristol and especially the Austrian ambassador to Naples, Graf Franz Anton Lamberg-Sprinzestein, among his patrons. His views of Vesuvius were formed by first-hand experience of the eruption of 1779, when he visited the volcano in the company of Sir William Hamilton. His views clearly reveal the influence of contemporaries painters such as Jacob Philipp Hackert and Pierre-Jacques Volaire.

Italian Landscape with a Waterfall

Wutky painted dramatic pictures of the Campagna with the waterfalls of Tivoli and Terni.

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Moonlit Scene on the Tiber near Rome

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The Campi Phlegraei near Naples and the Bay of Baiae

In Wutky’s many scenes of the mud fumaroles in the Campi Phlegraei he combines the eighteenth-century idea of the picturesque with the spirit of the Enlightenment.

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The Summit of Vesuvius Erupting

Wutky’s interest in volcanological phenomena around Naples was closely related to Sir William Hamilton. He was a highly educated dilettante in the field of natural sciences and Wutky’s friend. In 1779 he climbed Vesuvius in the company of Wutky to observe closely the violent eruption of Vesuvius. The painter sketched drawings that he later executed as large-scale paintings.

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