Claude-Joseph Vernet

Probably acquired from the artist by M. Dubois, 26 April 1784, for 1,000 livres;
Probably his sale, Paris, Lebrun, 20 December 1785, lot 93, and (according to Lagrange, although disputed by Ingersoll-Smouse, under Literature), his sale, Paris, Paillet, 15-18 December 1788, lot 72 or 73.

Probably Paris, Salon, 1785, no. 29.

Probably Livre de Raison 1774-1786, Avignon, Médiathique Ceccano, MS. 2323, fol. 203;
Probably L. Lagrange, Joseph Vernet et la Peinture du XVIIIeme Siècle, Paris 1864, p. 373;
Probably P. Sanchez, Dictionnaire des Artistes Exposant dans les Salons des XVII et XVIIIeme siècles à Paris et en Province, vol. III, Dijon 2004, p. 1687, no. 29;
Probably F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, vol. II, Paris 1926, p. 38, no. 1129. 

The canvas has an old but effective relining, and the back of the canvas is protected by a board affixed to the stretcher. The paint surface is a little abraded, particularly in the sky, and some scattered retouchings to the clouds are visible to the naked eye due to discolouration, particularly those which respond to an old horizontal fold mark which runs for the full breadth of the canvas approximately 4 cm. in from the upper margin. The paint surface is otherwise in good condition and secure, with no major damages to the work apparent. Inspection under UV light is largely impeded by the reflective varnish covering the work but this does confirm the scattered retouchings to the sky and further reveals some scattered spot retouchings to the foreground which concentrate on the figure far right, the rocks centre foreground, and the signature lower left. There are also retouchings to the margins of the painting in response to some old frame abrasion. Offered in a large carved and gilt wood frame in fairly good condition.
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ENGRAVED
By Klauber.

The painting is most probably identifiable with Ingersoll-Smouse no. 1129, which records two paintings bought directly from Vernet by M. Dubois, on 26 April 1784, for 1,000 livres. It was exhibited at the Salon the following year and subsequently engraved by Klauber; the only visual record of the painting until its recent rediscovery.  

Lagrange notes the picture in a second Dubois sale, in 1788.¹  This must be that on 15-18 December of that year, when the same Dubois (Lugt refers to him as 'marchand joaillier') sold 115 paintings at Paillet.

By 1784 Vernet had been the foremost painter of marine subjects in France for over 40 years. He learned his trade in Italy however and it was probably through an association with Adrian Manglard in Rome, where he arrived in 1734, that he first turned to marine painting. He remained in Rome until 1753 when he was summoned back to France, on the initiative of the Marquis de Marigny who had visited Vernet's studio in Rome in 1746, in order to fulfil one of the most important commissions of the reign of Louis XV: the representation of the Ports de France, a project he continued to work on until 1765 and that was subsequently completed by Jean-François Hue (1751-1823). Vernet's style changed little throughout his career and some of his finest works date from his late maturity; see, for example, the enormous canvas (160 by 261 cm) commissioned by William Petty, 2nd Earl Shelburne and executed in 1776 at the age of 62.²

1. See Literature.
2. Sold New York, Sotheby's, 27 January 2011, lot 183, for $6.2m.