Claude-Joseph Vernet

Private collection, France;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

The following condition report is provided by Alex France who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher. This is providing a stable structural support. Wax adhesive is visible on the reverse of the canvas. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. There is an overall pattern of very fine lines of craquelure. These appear entirely stable and are not visually distracting. There are some areas of repair visible including a very slightly raised inverted L-shaped repair just below the centre of the upper edge and a few small areas within the foliage in the upper right of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows scattered retouchings, including retouching covering the repaired tear below the centre of the upper edge mentioned above, with some associated small spots, a large area of retouching within the upper part of the rocks with associated retouchings, scattered areas within the sky in the upper right corner, a retouching within the left part of the foliage on the right side of the composition, a band of retouching running up the right edge, a few small retouchings close to the mast in the centre of the sky, a small diagonal line of retouching just above the centre of the lower edge and intermittent retouchings on the left edge. Other very small retouchings are also visible. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and no work is required.
"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."

Executed in 1754 in Marseille, this newly discovered moonlit seascape belongs to a pivotal moment in the artist’s career. Vernet had returned from Rome the previous year after nearly two decades abroad, in order to work on a series of monumental topographical paintings of major French commercial and military seaports for Louis XV, in what was one of the most important commissions of his reign. Of the two dozen paintings envisioned, only fifteen were finished, although Diderot would praise their 'immense detail and prodigious execution'.¹ Two of the earliest of these port scenes, also painted in 1754, were of Marseille. One, today in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, shows the entrance to the port and the other, in the Musée National de la Marine, the interior of the port.² Although more romanticised and atmospheric, and on a smaller scale and thus of a different character to these topographical views, the present work may reflect their influence in its desire to incorporate what the perceptive viewer might recognise as landmarks local to Marseille, the city in which Vernet first discovered his fascination with the ocean. The lighthouse visible in the distance recalls that near the fort of Saint Jacques at the harbour’s entrance and the cylindrical tower and block-like mass of the castle at the right are reminiscent of the Château d’If. Vernet also localises the place of execution with the inscription ‘Massila’, a corruption of the Latin name for the port. In this way the painting suggests a fusion of the well-tried compositional formulae developed by Vernet in Italy, with local references taken from his studies of the area around Marseilles.

Although the earliest history of the painting remains uncertain, there are two references in Vernet’s livre de raison, both for Irish collectors on the Grand Tour, which may relate to this work, corresponding as they do in date, size and subject matter. Both commissions were for sets of four large toile de l’empereur canvasses representing the Times of Day.³ The first of these commissions specified a 'clair de lune', or moonlit scene, and was for Sir Joseph Henry (1727–96), of Lodge Park, County Kildare, who was based in Rome between 1750 and 1761.⁴ The four paintings by Vernet, recorded in his collection in 1775, were ordered through the architect and art agent Matthew Brettingham. The second corresponding commission recorded in 1754 was for James Caulfield, 4th Viscount Charlemont, (1728–99), founder of an Academy for English artists in Rome, who passed through the South of France on his way back to Ireland from Italy.⁵

The present work is notable for its accomplished rendering of the dual light sources, with the cool, diffuse moonlight contrasting beautifully with the glow of the flames at the right. The composition, consisting of a group of fisherfolk surrounding a fire on a rocky promontory against the open sea, with landmarks only partly visible through the haze and a man-of-war at anchor on the calm reflective water, has been meticulously balanced. The success of this formula is demonstrated by its frequent reoccurrence in other of Vernet's moonlit views, painted throughout his career. A moonlit seascape commissioned by Madame du Barry in 1771, now in the Musée du Louvre, is perhaps the closest to ours, depicting all of the aforementioned elements, as well as the motif of beached anchor and fisherman leaning against a barrel.⁶

1. Cited in F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marine, Paris 1926, vol. I, p. 25.

2. Inv. nos. 8293 and 8294 respectively. Ingersoll-Smouse 1926, vol. I, p. 79, cat. nos. 650 and 568, reproduced figures 121 and 122.

3. The ‘toile de l’empereur’ canvas measured approximately 100 by 136 cm.

4. See Vernet’s La Livre de Verité, published in L. Legrange, Joseph Vernet, Paris 1864, p. 338, no. 147.

5. Legrange 1864, p. 339, no. 155.

6. Musée du Louvre (inv. no.  8334), see Ingersoll-Smouse 1926, vol. II, p. 21, cat. no. 934, reproduced figure  233.