Venice, a View of the Palazzo Ducale looking East down the Riva degli Schiavoni, 1839

A native of Mechelen, Belgium, where he took lessons with De Raedt at the art academy in the town, Vervloet rapidly distinguished himself by his talent and his precocity. Having exhibited a series of watercolors representing the battle of Waterloo, he was named Professor, and in 1821 obtained the Prix de Rome from Amsterdam’s Royal Academy. He left for Italy in 1822, living in Rome at first, then in Naples, in Sicily and finally in Venice, where he died in 1872. Already in 1824, his Interior of Saint Peter’s in Rome had attracted praise for him from Léopold Robert, and his frequentation of Granet was to influence him in a lasting way.

After a two-year stay in Rome, he moved to Naples, the southern Italian metropolis which was the European capital of tourism and attracted wealthy travelers and their suppliers of souvenirs, painters of vedute. With Pitloo and Gigante, Vervloet was one of the principal driving forces behind the Pausilipe School. It was named for one of the hills of Naples, and grouped those vedutisti who illustrated picturesque scenes bathed in the warm light of the South.