Attributed to Michael Wutky (Krems 1739-1823 Vienna)

After inspecting the work in 1992, Judy Egerton stated (written communication with the owner) that she agreed with Nicolson’s theory that this picture was executed by the same hand as the Derby picture (loc. cit.) but, in her view, that Wright would have ‘attempted a greater degree of realism’. She suggested an alternative attribution to Michael Wutky, the Austrian landscape painter who frequently depicted Vesuvius.