CC0 · no rights reserved
Pompeii
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Robert Duncanson's patrons in Cincinnati sponsored his first trip to Europe in 1853, allowing him to participate in a rite of passage for American artists. He compared his skills with those of European painters and claimed, "Of all the landscapes I saw in Europe...I do not feel discouraged." Duncanson imagined Pompeii around the time of its first excavation in 1747, showing men in eighteenth-century costume admiring the ruins and searching for buried treasure.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit linePompeii. 1855. Robert S. Duncanson, born Fayette, NY 1821-died Detroit, MI 1872. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Richard Frates. CC0.
