The Last Day of Pompeii, a large…

The Last Day of Pompeii, a large history painting by Karl Bryullov produced in 1830–1833 on the subject of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in CE 79, is notable for its positioning between Neoclassicism, the predominant style in Russia at this time, and Romanticism as increasingly practiced in France.

The painting is received to near universal acclaim and makes Bryullov the first Russian painter to have an international reputation.

In Russia it is seen as proving that Russian art is as good as art practiced in the rest of Europe.

Critics in France and Russia both note, however, that the perfection of the classically modeled bodies seems to be out of keeping with their desperate plight and the overall theme of the painting, which is a Romantic one of the sublime power of nature to destroy man's creations.