Considered by many to be the amongst the most scenic places in the entire world, the Amalfi coast along Italy's shore south of Naples sea offers spectacular vistas. One of numerous highlights is the 12th century monastery which was converted in 1821 to the Albergo Cappucci. Literally translating as the ‘hotel of pointed hoods', the grand inn on the cliff face where "blue sky and green sea" still retains much of its original cloistered charm, but has also been modernized to hold conventions.
It is the terrace walkway that Brandeis sets her subjects within, with its well established plants over the trellis and along the path in bloom. The vantage hints at the spectacular view through the Salerno gulf and out over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The placid blue water hosts a few leisure sailors, while a lady in fine dress strolls the walk with a man and child following. Brandeis misses no detail, from the shape of the shadows to the small break for the wave crests reaching the coastal promontory.
Interesting applications show some of the process Brandeis must have employed while painting. The sky has a layered soft touch of progressively stronger white, with a signaled stroke of a fine palette knife observed. The small flower touches are consistent in scale, but vary to the degree that she used different fine brushes for each type, creating different shapes of the blooms. Such attention to detail is absolutely a signature trait of all her paintings, but her superior overall compositions is what makes them shine.
