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Lot Essay
This magnificent panoramic view of the Bay of Naples is taken from the fishing village and port of Mergellina, looking south-east towards the distinctive Castel dell’Ovo jutting out into the sea, with Mount Vesuvius directly behind in the distance. High on the hill above on the left of the composition is the imposing Castel Sant’Elmo, employed at this date as a Spanish garrison, while below and to its left is the cupola of the church of San Giuseppe e Chiaia and in the center distance the cupola of the Baroque basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Pizzofalcone.
The composition derives from a painting by the celebrated French, 18th-century view painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789), painted in around 1748 and believed to have been commissioned in Rome by Claude-François Rogier de Beaufort-Montboissier, Abbé de Canillac (1699–1761), Chargé d’Affairs de France in Rome, together with its pendant depicting A View of the Bay of Naples seen from the Marinella, both of which are today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The present version, which reveals numerous changes to the disposition of the figures, is very close in handling to the work of one of Vernet’s leading pupils, Charles-François Grenier de Lacroix, known as Lacroix de Marseille, who became his pupil after his arrival in Rome in 1754. Like his master, Lacroix specialized in views evoking the coastline in and around Rome and Naples, as well as more topographically accurate views such as the present work, which were especially popular with visiting Grand Tourists. Lacroix de Marseille is known to have adopted his master’s compositions on a number of occasions, as perfectly exemplified by a set of four paintings by Vernet representing the Times of the Day, signed and dated 1751, which are today at Uppark House, West Sussex, together with high quality, faithful copies by Lacroix (although that of ‘Morning’ was lost in the 1989 fire). The Vernets were commissioned in Rome by the Englishman Benjamin Lethieullier and it is believed that the copies by Lacroix, each signed and dated ‘Gr de Lacroix f Roma 1751’, were made to order for Lethieullier’s brother-in-law, Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Baronet, probably as replacements for autograph replicas that he had commissioned from Vernet, which were never in fact completed as the artist was called back to Paris by Marigny in the autumn of 1753 to paint his great set of the Ports of France for King Louis XV.
With regard to a likely dating for the present work, it would seem logical that it was painted sometime between the date of Vernet’s original of circa 1748 and the death of its commissioner Claude-François Rogier des Beaufort-Montboissier, Abbé de Canillac in 1761, following which his entire collection was removed from Rome.
Another version of the present composition, of similar size, but seemingly inferior quality is given to Vernet’s English pupil Thomas Patch and was sold London, Christie’s, 8 December 2016, lot 23, for £161,000 ($202,464).
The composition derives from a painting by the celebrated French, 18th-century view painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789), painted in around 1748 and believed to have been commissioned in Rome by Claude-François Rogier de Beaufort-Montboissier, Abbé de Canillac (1699–1761), Chargé d’Affairs de France in Rome, together with its pendant depicting A View of the Bay of Naples seen from the Marinella, both of which are today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The present version, which reveals numerous changes to the disposition of the figures, is very close in handling to the work of one of Vernet’s leading pupils, Charles-François Grenier de Lacroix, known as Lacroix de Marseille, who became his pupil after his arrival in Rome in 1754. Like his master, Lacroix specialized in views evoking the coastline in and around Rome and Naples, as well as more topographically accurate views such as the present work, which were especially popular with visiting Grand Tourists. Lacroix de Marseille is known to have adopted his master’s compositions on a number of occasions, as perfectly exemplified by a set of four paintings by Vernet representing the Times of the Day, signed and dated 1751, which are today at Uppark House, West Sussex, together with high quality, faithful copies by Lacroix (although that of ‘Morning’ was lost in the 1989 fire). The Vernets were commissioned in Rome by the Englishman Benjamin Lethieullier and it is believed that the copies by Lacroix, each signed and dated ‘Gr de Lacroix f Roma 1751’, were made to order for Lethieullier’s brother-in-law, Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Baronet, probably as replacements for autograph replicas that he had commissioned from Vernet, which were never in fact completed as the artist was called back to Paris by Marigny in the autumn of 1753 to paint his great set of the Ports of France for King Louis XV.
With regard to a likely dating for the present work, it would seem logical that it was painted sometime between the date of Vernet’s original of circa 1748 and the death of its commissioner Claude-François Rogier des Beaufort-Montboissier, Abbé de Canillac in 1761, following which his entire collection was removed from Rome.
Another version of the present composition, of similar size, but seemingly inferior quality is given to Vernet’s English pupil Thomas Patch and was sold London, Christie’s, 8 December 2016, lot 23, for £161,000 ($202,464).