Best known for the more highly finished technique of his oils, Charles Caryl Coleman here employed the spontaneous medium of pastel to record the aftermath of the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, not far from the artist’s home on the island of Capri, in Italy. Coleman’s depiction of the event closely resembles period photographs of the climax of the disaster on April 7, when lava fountains and earthquakes decimated the small, nearby town of Ottaviano.