Claude-Joseph Vernet

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has a very old glue lining. The paint layer is stable. The surface is clean, varnished and retouched. The retouches are focused almost entirely in the paler colors of the distant landscape where thinness has developed in the central outcropping with the buildings on top and around the aqueduct on the right. There are hardly any retouches in the remainder of the picture except for a few spots in the lower right and in the river beneath the waterfall.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This painting is a smaller version of Vernet's composition entitled Le Soir, signed and dated 1765, which is one of a set of four paintings depicting different times of the day, commissioned by Louis XV and today in the collection of the Louvre.  The present version was probably painted later, circa 1780.

Emilie Beck Saiello has confirmed the attribution of the present lot on the basis of photographs and will publish it in the catalogue raisonné she is completing for the late Philip Conisbee.