Carlo Bonavia (act. 1755-1788) Biography
Carlo Bonavia or Carlo Bonaria (Rome, 1755 – Naples, after 1788) was an Italian painter. The limited sources available say that he was originally from Rome, although he worked mainly in Naples from 1754 to 1788. He was one of the most appreciated pupils of the French painter Claude Joseph Vernet. Bonavia's paintings, based on a rigorous fidelity to the plein air painting of his master, range from the landscapes of the Lazio-Campania countryside to the seascapes inspired by the coasts of the Gulf of Naples, up to the antiquarian views of the Campi Flegrei. Like Vernet, he also created caprices, in which real antiquities were placed in imaginary settings. Following a well-established fashion among travelers on the Grand Tour, Bonavia also painted some paintings depicting the eruption of Vesuvius in December 1754. Among his patrons and clients were Count Carlo Giuseppe di Firmian, Caesarian ambassador to Naples from 1754 to 1758 , the English nobleman John Brudenell Montagu, better known as Lord Brudenell, the Austrian count Ernst Guido Harrach and the Lorraine doctor Alexandre-Louis de Laugier. Bonavia had a remarkably successful career and was praised by Pietro Zani in his critical-reasoned methodical encyclopedia of fine arts (1820) as a refined painter of views and historical subjects. The Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, the Museu de Évora (Portugal), the Harrach collection in Rohrau (Austria), the Stourhead collections in Wiltshire and Beaulieu in Hampshire (Great Britain) are some of the most important public and private collections preserving paintings by Bonavia.
