Neapolitan Fisher Girls Surprised Bathing by Moonlight

Turner saw the Bay of Naples in 1819, on his first journey to Italy. More than 20 years later he made it the setting of this night scene and showed it at the Royal Academy in 1840, the same exhibition in which he hung The Slave Ship.

The title tells the story. Fisher girls bathing in the bay are caught by a sudden burst of moonlight as the clouds part. The Huntington's own description points to the contrasts Turner built around that light, with Vesuvius erupting in the distance and a fire burning in the foreground, both warm against the cold white of the moon. The bathers themselves are small, loosely brushed figures along the shore.

The canvas was bought by Robert Vernon, a collector of modern British pictures who gave most of his collection to the nation in 1847.