This painting is one of the most successful small-format depictions of a "night storm" or gale off the shores of Capri by Diefenbach, most of whose work now hangs in the Certosa di San Giacomo in Capri.

The German painter, a voluntary exile on Capri in the late 19th century, proved more capable than many of capturing the island's naturalistic element and of conjugating it with his own dreamlike vision.

In this instance that talent is reflected in the various elements developed by the artist's imagination, the truncated cone tower in the foreground harking back to the medieval Torre della Guardia in Anacapri while we can make out the Faraglioni in the upper right background.

The scene, imbued with many shades of darkness, is illuminated up by the strong contrast between the moonlight lighting up the storm and the traditional landscape dissolving in a maelstrom of lines and light that almost completely cancel out the substance of the objects depicted, sucking the observer into the picture and turning him into a player in the scene.

In an attempt to enliven his composition the artist has added a large number of seabirds which also partake of the violence and force of the waves.

The thin film of paint, the masterly application of the velatura technique, the remarkbly scenographic effect of the sea spray and the seagulls perched on rocks or soaring in flight all come together to make this one of the artist's most sensitive scenes set on Capri. In this instance Diefenbach's work may be interpreted as a transposition of the concept of the "sublime" so beloved of the Neo-romantic poets[1].