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Inspired by the artist's experience of Vesuvius during his stay in Italy these dramatic scenes of the erupting volcano are of a type that the artist was commissioned to produce for a wide circle of patrons. By the time that Wright travelled to Italy in 1773 he had been experimenting for over a decade with dramatic and artificial effects of light and with the chiaroscuro that is a typical feature of so much of his work.

Vesuvius erupting at night was not only a magnificent subject to express in such a manner, but also encapsulates a particular aspect of the Grand Tour that was beginning to fascinate travellers. Whereas previous generations had sought only the manmade wonders of the Renaissance and the classical past, the cognoscenti of Wright's generation were beginning to appreciate the sublime through landscape. An awesome subject combines, therefore, with an unequalled technical virtuosity in Wright's Vesuvius subjects, easily explaining why they were among his most frequently commissioned works in the second half of the 1770s.