After studying painting in Amsterdam and Berlin, Willem Welters embarked on a lengthy tour of Italy, drawn by the beauty of the country and its unique views. He visited Venice, Florence and Rome, but in c. 1910 he decided to settle in Capri where he worked for many years, forging bonds of friendship with the artists who frequented the island, including Antonio Leto, and developing and modifying his painting.
He travelled to Liguria in the mid-1930s and settled in Sanremo after a brief spell on the Riviera di Levante.
His painting focused predominantly on the landscape and his works were very much appreciated by the aristocratic and bougeois travellers who visited both Capri and Sanremo. Endowed with remarkable technical expertise occasionally bordering on virtuosity, unquestionably a product of his training in Holland, he skilfully managed to conjugate a varied palette with the luminosity characteristic of the Neapolitan school. The picture under discussion here, a View of Monte Solaro in Capri, is typical of the artist’s work in terms of both subject matter and technique.
Suffused with atmospherics, this view of Capri garners its full force with Welters’ technique but at the same time it captures the soft ambience of the island. Thanks to his recourse to varying shades of pink blended with the blues typical of Capri, the artist has produced a view at once romantic and dramatic, without ever betraying the poetry and sweetness of his beloved island home.