Claude-Joseph Vernet

Commissioned by Cardinal Frédéric Jérôme de La Rochefoucauld (1701–1757), Rome, 1747;

Acquired by Monseigneur de Philippau, France (according to an old inscription on the reverse, now covered by relining);

Elisabeth-Olympe-Louise-Armande-Félicité du Vigier, Marquise de Flamarens (1752–1835), Château de Villiers-les-Maillets, Saint-Barthélemy;

Probably by descent to her granddaughter, Elisabeth-Caroline Barnet, Comtesse de Mastin (1801–1865), wife of Philippe-Auguste-Armand-Maurice de Mastin, Comte de Mastin (b. 1780), Château de Villiers-les-Maillets;

By descent to their daughter, Alix de Mastin, Comtesse de Mastin (1825–1891), Château de Villiers-les-Maillets;

By descent to her cousin, Étienne de Bessot, Comte de Lamothe (1868–1939), Château de Villiers-les-Maillets, 5 June 1922;

Thence by descent;

Until sold, Monte Carlo, Sotheby's, 6 December 1987, lot 94, for 888,000 French francs;

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Private Collector'), New York, Christie's, 11 January 1991, lot 73, for $550,000;

Where acquired by the present owner.

F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marines 1714–1789, 2 vols, Paris 1926, vol. I, p. 50, nos 188–89 (as one of two marines commissioned by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld: 'Commandées par le Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, à cent cinquante écus les deux [...]').