View of Naples with Mount Vesuvius

A thin plume of smoke rises from Vesuvius on the right, and nobody in Naples at the time would have found that odd. The volcano had erupted violently in 1737, and through the 18th century it was rarely quiet for long. Joseph Vernet painted this view around 1748, during the long stay in Italy that ran from 1734 to 1753. The eye travels across the bay to the city strung out along the shore. In front, fishermen unload a boat, a lady in pink silk strolls with her companion, a dog trots past, and washing hangs from a house on the left.

The picture has a companion, a view of the Bay of Naples from the same years, and the two reached the Louvre by separate roads. The companion was given in 1949 by the collector André Pereire, who kept the use of it for life and gave up that right in 1974. Two years later this canvas came up at a public auction in France. The state used its right of pre-emption, stepping into the buyer's place at the hammer price, and the pair was together again.