A Shipwreck in a Storm

This painting once had as a pendant a View of a Seaport in Calm Weather (private collection). Pillement, like Vernet and Lacroix de Marseille, painted numerous pairs of cabinet pictures that contrast landscapes or seascapes in stormy and calm weather conditions. Pillement seems to have begun painting marine scenes in the 1780s, and although there is a paucity of dated canvases by him with which to establish a firm chronology for his works, the present picture seems to date from circa 1785-90, years in which Pillement's paintings are notable for their sure, rapid execution. The present Storm can be compared with a pair of marine scenes that are signed and dated '1788' and which were sold at Christie's, London, July 21, 1972, lot 72.