Why go
John Singer Sargent's portraits of Rosina Ferrara shift attention from visiting celebrities to an island model. Debussy's Les collines d'Anacapri gives the western hills a musical association, while Axel Munthe's memoir connects a named house with Capri's literary reputation. These works offer different ways to approach the same landscape.
The full story
International interest in Capri grew during the nineteenth century. August Kopisch's account of his 1826 stay helped bring the Blue Grotto to readers abroad. Later, painters including John Singer Sargent and Frank Hyde spent time on the island; Sargent repeatedly portrayed the local model Rosina Ferrara. Writers made Capri both a home and an imagined alternative to ordinary life. Compton Mackenzie lived here from 1913 to 1920 and used the island in works including Vestal Fire. Somerset Maugham's short story The Lotus Eater follows a visitor who decides to abandon his working life for leisure on Capri. The attraction of escape becomes the story's problem as well as its premise. Memoirs bring the focus back to remembered places and people. Munthe's The Story of San Michele is tied to his villa; Edwin Cerio's Aria di Capri gathers island essays, and Shirley Hazzard's Greene on Capri recalls Graham Greene.