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By 1869, Haseltine was back in Rome, where he and his family settled in the sixteenth-century Villa Alfieri in the Piazza del Gesu. The Haseltine home, which was filled with art and antiques, became a gathering place for artists, writers, and foreign visitors. From his home base in Rome, Haseltine spent the next two decades traveling and painting throughout Italy and the rest of Europe. He painted this view of the volcano Mt. Etna while standing amid the ruins of an ancient theater in Taormina, a small village on the east coast of Sicily. He ultimately painted at least eight paintings of this view, from different angles and at different times of day. Two other examples are in the permanent collections of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama.
ProvenancePrivate collection, Pennsylvania.
Private collection, by descent.
Sotheby's, New York, 17 September 2019, lot 104, sold by the above.
Private collection, Laguna Niguel, CA, from the above.
Christie's, New York, 2023
Artist
William Stanley Haseltine
(American, 1835 - 1900)
Mount Etna from Taormina
Date1870s
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 40 1/2 × 57 3/4 in. (102.9 × 146.7 cm)
Object numberN0003.2023
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Museum Purchase with funds provided by Nellie and Robert Gipson.
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextThe painter William Stanley Haseltine spent most of his career living and working in Europe. In 1855, Haseltine traveled to Germany to study landscape painting with Andreas Achenbach (1815-1910) at the Düsseldorf Academy. At the Academy, Haseltine befriended the artists Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868), Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910), and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), with whom he traveled to Switzerland and Italy in 1856. Haseltine spent two years in Rome, returning to the United States in 1858. By 1869, Haseltine was back in Rome, where he and his family settled in the sixteenth-century Villa Alfieri in the Piazza del Gesu. The Haseltine home, which was filled with art and antiques, became a gathering place for artists, writers, and foreign visitors. From his home base in Rome, Haseltine spent the next two decades traveling and painting throughout Italy and the rest of Europe. He painted this view of the volcano Mt. Etna while standing amid the ruins of an ancient theater in Taormina, a small village on the east coast of Sicily. He ultimately painted at least eight paintings of this view, from different angles and at different times of day. Two other examples are in the permanent collections of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama.
ProvenancePrivate collection, Pennsylvania.
Private collection, by descent.
Sotheby's, New York, 17 September 2019, lot 104, sold by the above.
Private collection, Laguna Niguel, CA, from the above.
Christie's, New York, 2023
On View
On view
