Capri was a favourite motif and excursion spot for artists from all over Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. The island fits well with the desire of the Romantic era to find new pristine, picturesque places – with steep cliffs and exciting grottoes. Many of the Danish Golden Age artists also came to Naples and Capri, and Petzholdt was there in 1831 as one of the first. Petzholdt's paintings from the island were of great significance for the other Danish Golden Age painters and helped influence their perception of Capri. They also copied Petzholdt’s paintings back home in Copenhagen. The work in question was copied by Christen Købke in the late 1830s. Købke's copy is today located at the Glyptotek in Copenhagen (Inv. No. MIN 3268).

Literature: Hans Edvard Nørregaard-Nielsen, “Christen Købke. Italien tur-retur”, 1996, vol. 3 pp. 73–76 (Købke's copy after Petzholdt reproduced p. 74).

“..... Petzholdt has in the painting of Marina Piccola on Capri, which was the basis of Købke's copy, zoomed in on the internal and true existence of the place. The grand sights are pushed in the background and the horizon placed so that you do not see the ”Faraglioni“ [the three famous rocks southeast of the island that can be seen from Marina Piccola] but instead two elegantly robust boats on the beach that could have been there since the time of the Greeks. A few larger stones have also been depicted and you see the stairs that to the left swing up into the countryside.” ..... “The painting does not belong to Købke’s most inspiring work, but unfortunately, it has not been possible to compare it with the original for years, since it must be either located in an unknown private collection or lost entirely.” (p. 76).

Fortunately, the original painting has not been lost – it is right here. For many years, it has been in a Danish private collection, but now it has surfaced, and a comparison is therefore possible.

Provenance: Gottlieb Collin, his auction, 1886 no. 219 with the title “Den lille Marine paa Capri” (the little marina on Capri), here acquired by the Danish sculptor G. C. Freund (1821–1900).

Gottlieb Collin (1806–1885) was married to Petzholdt's sister Augusta (1801–1865), thus being Petzholdt's brother-in-law, and his characteristic handwriting is seen on the back of the canvas. Collin wrote like this on the back when he mounted Petzholdt's many unsigned and unmounted sketches on canvas and on a stretcher after the painter's all too early and dramatic death in Patras, Greece, at the age of 33 years.