Vesuvius
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
Year: 1985
Sheet: 31.5 x 39.4 inches (80×100 cm)
Edition: 250
Artist’s Proofs: 50 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 10 PP
Trial Proofs: 57 TP, with unique color combinations, unnumbered
(see Feldman & Schellmann IIB.365)
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Publisher: Fondazione Amelio, Naples, Italy
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.365
Signed and numbered in pencil lower right
Stamped by the Fondazione Amelio Instituto per l’arte contemporanea Napoli
Completed for a solo exhibition in the esteemed Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Vesuvius features an image of the legendary Mount Vesuvius erupting to create an energetic and dynamic composition. On display in a space typically reserved for the old masters and classical landscapes, Warhol reworks the traditional, romanticized Neapolitan imagery of Vesuvius and transforms it into a Pop Art icon.
Produced towards the end of his career, Vesuvius is characteristic of Warhol’s later prints that extend beyond the established screen-printing method and mark a return to hand painting. Warhol applies expressionist brushwork over a flat, screen-printed base, using different colors for each print to unfailingly give the impression that the image has just been painted.
Using color fields of bright red, contrasted against black and multicolored lines to show the eruption, Warhol creates a powerful image that combines his two most renowned themes: the legacy of art history and the enduring presence of death. Reconsidering the grave display of death in his powerful images of electric chairs, car crashes, and suicides in the early 1960s, Vesuvius embodies this sense of impending doom and destruction in a more vivacious and dramatic style.
Regular Editions
Bonhams London: 10 December 2024
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 44,800 / USD 57,110
Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 wove paper
Signed and numbered ‘AP 21/50’ in pencil
An artist’s proof aside from the numbered edition of 250
SBI Art Auction: 26 October 2024
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 5,000,000
JPY 6,900,000 / USD 45,302
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius (F. & S. Ⅱ.365), 1985
Screenprint
Signed and numbered on the lower left, Copyright stamp on the reverse
From the edition of 250
Forum Auctions: 3 July 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 60,000 (Hammer)
GBP 75,600 / USD 96,502
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Vesuvius (Feldman & Schellman II.365), 1985
Screenprint in colors on Arches paper
Signed in pencil, numbered from the edition of 250
Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2024
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 52,920
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 140⁄250 (there were also 50 artist’s proofs)
Stair Auctions: 15 February 2024
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 40,000 (Hammer)
USD 52,400
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint in colors on heavy paper
Signed and numbered 138/250 in pencil
With the artist’s copyright stamp on the reverse
Blindarte Casa D’Aste: 30 November 2023
Estimated: EUR 40,000 – 60,000
EUR 50,000 / USD 54,460
ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Color screen printing
Signed Andy Warhol at lower right
Numbered 189/250 bottom right
Phillips New-York: 20 April 2023
Estimated: USD 35,000 – 45,000
USD 44,450
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius (F. & S. 365), 1985
Screen-print in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed and numbered ‘AP 36/50’ in pencil
An artist’s proof, the edition was 250
Sotheby’s New-York: 27 October 2022
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 56,700
ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed in pencil and numbered 10/250
Freeman’s Hindman: 11 May 2022
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 80,000
USD 81,900
ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed in pencil and numbered 24/250
Christie’s London: 28 September 2021
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 35,000 / USD 48,245
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
signed in pencil and numbered 21/250
Trial Proofs
Mallet Japan: 18 May 2023
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 8,400,000 (Hammer)
JPY 9,786,000 / USD 70,615
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Screenprint
Signed at lower right
Ed. TP/57
Phillips London: 29 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 138,600 / USD 168,355
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius, 1985
Unique screen-print on Arches 88 paper
This work is from a series of 57 unique color variant screen-prints
Christie’s New-York: 21 October 2021
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 150,000
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius, 1985
Unique screen-print in colors
Signed in pencil, one of 57 unnumbered trial proofs
Christie’s New-York: 20 July 2021
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 125,000
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL
Vesuvius, 1985
Unique screen-print in colors
Signed in pencil, one of 57 unnumbered trial proofs
Dallas Auction Gallery: 26 February 2020
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 75,000
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928–1987).
“Vesuvius” (Feldman & Schellmann, IIB.365), 1985
Color screenprint
From the edition of 57 unique trial proof impressions
Signed lower right, “Andy Warhol” with printer’s blindstamp lower left
Christie’s New-York: 18 April 2019
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 106,250
TRIAL PROOF
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Vesuvius, 1985
Unique screenprint in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed in pencil, a trial proof aside from the edition of 250
With the ‘Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board’ inkstamp and annotated ‘A 134.062’ on the reverse