Last Day of Pompei

1833 · State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

historical

In St Petersburg the Russian painter Bryullov was among the many Romantics who turned anew to the ruins of Pompeii - originally discovered in 1748 but now the subject of fresh study and excavation - for the quintessential subject of a civilization at the point of destruction. His huge Last Day of Pompeii was finished in 1833, a year before Lord Lytton published his famous novel on the same theme. That Pompeii was obliterated by a natural catastrophe, suggestive of divine retribution, only added to its significance.

Loading map…

About the Artist

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov

1799 – 1852

Painter, part of a Russian family of artists, of German origin. The family included various artists and craftsmen, settled in Russia in the 18th century. The brothers Aleksandr Bryullov and Karl Bryullov were its most notable members. Aleksandr was one of the originators and leaders of Romanticism and historicism in Russian architecture. Karl briefly became one of the most famous painters in Europe, largely on account of his huge history painting of the Last Day of Pompeii (1830-32; St Petersburg, Russian Museum). He also produced genre, religious and portrait works. Though much criticized later in the century, he was an outstanding representative of the academic style as combined with a personal response to Romanticism. Karl spent part of his life in Italy (1822-34 and 1849-52), where he painted his chief work, The Last Day of Pompeii, inspired by a performance of the opera of that name by Giovanni Pacini. An enormous (6 m wide) melodramatic composition, it brought him European fame and inspired Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii (1834).

View all works →