Lot Essay
The present picture is first mentioned in Vernet's account book for 1763/4 as 'un tableau pour M. Godefroy le jeune de deux pieds cinq pouces trois lignes de large sur un pied huit pouces six lignes de haut sujet de marine a ma fantaisie' (see L. Lagrange, loc. cit.), and it appears that soon afterwards Godefroy ordered a pendant, subject unspecified (ibid., p. 346, no. 200.). According to his account book, Vernet received 'les derniers jours d'aoust 1764 de M. Godeffroy le jeune pour deux tableaux de deux pieds 1200 [livres]' (ibid., p. 364, receipt no. 115). The following year, both pictures were exhibited at the Salon under no. 73, 'Deux marines. Ces tableaux, de 2 pieds de large sur 1 pied 8 pouces de haut appartiennent à M. Godefroy le jeune'. The two pictures were still together in 1803, when they appeared as lot 244 in the Lespinasse d'Artel sale in Paris. The present picture was then described in the following terms, 'Par un temps calme, vaste étendue de mer. Sur le devant, des figures de matelots et des pêcheurs sur des rochers, qui garnissent le rivage; dans l'éloignement à droite, on aperçoit un vaisseau en construction dans le bassin d'un chantier avec un joli groupe d'arbres et un pont qui conduit à un château fort avancé dans la mer; la partie gauche est encore intéressante par les détails d'une galère, quelques barquettes et trois jolies figures de femme cherchent des coquillages' (F. Ingersoll-Smouse, loc. cit.).
The pendant, now lost, is known from the 1773 engraving in reverse by Flipart (F. Ingersoll-Smouse, ibid. pl. LXXXXIII, fig. 204). It represents a Tempête de Nuit, and was obviously intended by the artist to provide a suitable contrasting complement to the present image of calm. Both pictures taken together would have displayed the range of the artist's powers in conveying diametrically opposed sentiment by means of compositional invention and a virtuoso technical display of differing light effects, movement and colour.
The present picture was produced when Vernet was at the height of his reputation in Paris. The year it appeared in the Salon, 1765, also marked the completion of the major achievement of Vernet's career: from 1753 onwards, Vernet had been engaged by the Marquis de Marigny on the most significant royal commission of Louis XV's reign, namely to paint a series of Les Ports de France. After nearly ten years of constant travel around the major coastal towns of France, Vernet and his family finally settled in Paris in 1762, and the series was completed three years later. In Paris, Vernet was treated from the outset as one of the first artists of his generation, and held in high esteem by both the public and the critics. Even Diderot was moved to claim that 'les marines de Vernet, qui m'offrent toutes sortes d'incidents et de scènes, sont autant pour moi des tableaux d'histoire, que les Septs sacrements du Poussin' (see P. Vernière, ed. Diderot: oeuvres esthétiques, Paris, 1965, p. 726).
We are grateful to Dr. Philip Conisbee for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
The pendant, now lost, is known from the 1773 engraving in reverse by Flipart (F. Ingersoll-Smouse, ibid. pl. LXXXXIII, fig. 204). It represents a Tempête de Nuit, and was obviously intended by the artist to provide a suitable contrasting complement to the present image of calm. Both pictures taken together would have displayed the range of the artist's powers in conveying diametrically opposed sentiment by means of compositional invention and a virtuoso technical display of differing light effects, movement and colour.
The present picture was produced when Vernet was at the height of his reputation in Paris. The year it appeared in the Salon, 1765, also marked the completion of the major achievement of Vernet's career: from 1753 onwards, Vernet had been engaged by the Marquis de Marigny on the most significant royal commission of Louis XV's reign, namely to paint a series of Les Ports de France. After nearly ten years of constant travel around the major coastal towns of France, Vernet and his family finally settled in Paris in 1762, and the series was completed three years later. In Paris, Vernet was treated from the outset as one of the first artists of his generation, and held in high esteem by both the public and the critics. Even Diderot was moved to claim that 'les marines de Vernet, qui m'offrent toutes sortes d'incidents et de scènes, sont autant pour moi des tableaux d'histoire, que les Septs sacrements du Poussin' (see P. Vernière, ed. Diderot: oeuvres esthétiques, Paris, 1965, p. 726).
We are grateful to Dr. Philip Conisbee for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.