Masterfully view of Capri Marina was executed by Bernardo Hay also Bernard Hay (1864 in Florence;- 1931 Capri or Naples). He was was a British painter, who lived and worked mostly in Italy.

Bernardo Hay was born in 1864 tto the British painter Jane Benham Hay, who was living in Florence at the time. His mother was one of the seminal figures in the pre-Raphaelite movement in England. She had been separated from her husband, the painter William Hay, for a long time when the child was born, so that the latter is out of the question as a father. The mother later married the Italian painter Francesco Saverio Altamura, who belonged to the group of artists of the Macchiaioli and with whom she had been romantically linked since the late 1850s.

Bernardo Hay studied painting with Altamura in Naples. In the early 1880s, he lived briefly in Venice, Florence, and Bruges. In 1883 he participated in the annual art exhibitions in Milan (with four paintings: field of flowers, summer in Posillipo and two views of Venice) and Rome (view of the Grand Canal, the city of Bruges and a view of the Belgian countryside). Around 1885 he exhibited in Turin (portrait of Carmanella, spring flower and seascape made of resin). He returned to Naples in the late 1880s and thereafter mainly made views of scenes and people around the Gulf of Naples. In 1889 he still lived in Naples and later settled on Capri.

Apart from the few known views of Bruges and Belgium, landscapes of the Gulf of Naples as well as portrait studies of the simple Neapolitan population were among the artist´s preferred subjects. There were also some views of Venice. Only oil paintings by Hay are known. Information on the artist´s death varies sometimes with 1931 on Capri and sometimes with 1934 in Naples. He was known by the nickname Pito (German the little one).

Literature: artist lexicons by Vollmer, Thieme/Becker (both in German) and by Benezit (in French).Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas, original gold-plated frame.

Measurements: unframed w 26 3/8" x h 17 1/8" (67 x 43,5 cm), framed w 30 6/8" x h 21 1/2" (77,7 x 54,5 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.