Lot n° 25
Estimation :
200000 - 300000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 256 000EUR
Claude Joseph VERNET (Avignon 1714 - Paris... - Lot 25 - Ader
Claude Joseph VERNET (Avignon 1714 - Paris 1789)
View of the galleys of Naples
Canvas
Signed, localized and dated lower left "Joseph Vernet / f. Romae 1750 "
74,5 x 100 cm
Provenance :
Painted for Thiroux d'Epersennes (" Deux marines en toile de 4 palmes a ma fantaisie pour M. Thiroux d'Epersennes maître des Requêtes rue Courtau Villain au Marais a Paris pour la fin de juin 1750 le prix est de 60 Ecus Romains la pièce ") ;
In the family of the present owner since 1933 (certificate of Tedesco frères août 1933).
Bibliography :
L. Lagrange, " Joseph Vernet ", in Revue Universelle des Arts, Tome III, Bruxelles, 1858, p. 98 ;
L. Lagrange, Joseph Vernet et la peinture au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1864, quoted p. 204 ;
Florence Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet. Peintre de marine 1714-1789, Paris, 1926, n° 263, fig. 62 (reproduction of the engraving by Le Bas).
A native of Avignon, a city belonging to the pope at the time, Vernet spent nearly twenty years in Italy from 1734 to 1752. From Rome, he made several trips, notably to Naples where he painted his first seascapes. While drawing directly on the motif, he studied the works of Salvator Rosa, Adrien Manglard, Giovanni-Paolo Pannini and Andrea Locatelli, the atmospheric effects of Claude Lorrain, unifying these influences into a new style. Hence the feeling of Arcadian nature that emerges from this landscape, lit in the background by a rising sun. The presence of oriental people adds to the work the picturesque exoticism that makes the painting all the more pleasant. Indeed, Marseilles had close ties with the Sublime Porte, and held a monopoly on trade with the countries under Ottoman domination, which explains their presence in many of our painter's port paintings.
At the time of our painting, Vernet, already famous, was working for English and recently French clients. He was 36 years old and had been exhibiting at the Paris Salon since 1746. In 1750, a visit to Vernet's studio had become a must: Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, later Marquis de Marigny and director of the King's Buildings, starting his Grand Tour, did not fail to visit it. Shortly afterwards, he called the painter back to France and in 1753 entrusted him with the most prestigious commission of his career, the famous series of Ports of France, which would occupy him for almost twenty years.
Our painting belonged to a pair commissioned in 1750 for Thiroux d'Epersennes (125 ecus each), to decorate the walls of his Hôtel de Guenegaud (now the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature).
The latter, from a great family of financiers from Burgundy, was master of the ordinary requests of the Hotel. A great art lover and collector, he gathered his collection in the first floor apartment, which included three famous works by Falconet: the Bather, the Pygmalion and Galatea (preserved in the Louvre Museum) and the bas-relief of Alexander and Campaspe.
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