Michael Wutky

1739 – 1822

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.

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