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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Dr. Philip Conisbee for confirming the attribution of this picture on the basis of photographs.
Dated 1770, this highly charged Scène de tempête was painted at a time when Vernet had already been long established as the pre-eminent painter of coastal scenes. Official recognition in his own country had begun when he was approved by the Académie Royale in Paris in 1746, which had enabled him to exhibit at the Salon that year for the first time. When Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, later marquis de Marigny and Directeur des Bâtiments, made his educational tour of Italy in 1750, he and his party had visited Vernet's studio in Rome. It was on the marquis' initiative that, in 1753, Vernet was summoned back to France to paint the Ports de France, one of the most important royal commissions of Louis XV's reign. He continued working on this commission until 1765. After this time, he went on repeating themes that had already been tried with success throughout his career.
This picture was on loan until recently to the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland, which houses a notable and eclectic collection of over 3,000 works of art, on the shores of Lake Kuorevesi.
Dated 1770, this highly charged Scène de tempête was painted at a time when Vernet had already been long established as the pre-eminent painter of coastal scenes. Official recognition in his own country had begun when he was approved by the Académie Royale in Paris in 1746, which had enabled him to exhibit at the Salon that year for the first time. When Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, later marquis de Marigny and Directeur des Bâtiments, made his educational tour of Italy in 1750, he and his party had visited Vernet's studio in Rome. It was on the marquis' initiative that, in 1753, Vernet was summoned back to France to paint the Ports de France, one of the most important royal commissions of Louis XV's reign. He continued working on this commission until 1765. After this time, he went on repeating themes that had already been tried with success throughout his career.
This picture was on loan until recently to the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland, which houses a notable and eclectic collection of over 3,000 works of art, on the shores of Lake Kuorevesi.