VERNET Joseph (1714-1789) and workshop - Lot 222

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Lot n° 222
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Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
VERNET Joseph (1714-1789) and workshop - Lot 222
VERNET Joseph (1714-1789) and workshop Shipwreck Oil on canvas, signed "Joseph Vernet / 1784". 77 x 101 cm Along with Hubert Robert, Joseph Vernet is undoubtedly the greatest French landscape painter of the 18th century. He was also a leading artistic figure in the Europe of his time. Born in Avignon in 1714, he received his initial training in Provence before moving to Rome in 1734 to perfect his skills. He remained there until 1753. A painter of landscapes and seascapes, he was unable to benefit from the status of boarder at the Académie de France in Rome, but nevertheless benefited from study sessions based on live models, which enabled him to master the representation of the body, attitudes and expressions (rare among landscape painters). Supported in his early years by pontifical circles and French diplomats, Vernet began to attract British clients in 1745, following his marriage to Virginia Parker, daughter of an Irish agent for British travelers. The painter's fame and the influx of commissions led him to raise the price of his paintings "exaggeratedly according to Ghezzi and Mariette". This led to the development of a parallel production of copies made (or not) in the artist's studio, with the help of Charles Grenier, known as Lacroix from Marseille, or Ignace Vernet, the artist's brother. Vernet's success, but also his father-in-law Mark Parker's troubles with the Inquisition, prompted the painter to accept the Marquis de Marigny's invitation to return to France to carry out the prestigious royal commission for Ports de France. The fifteen paintings, sent to the Salon du Louvre from 1755 to 1765. The painter then decided to enlist the services of engravers to distribute his paintings in Europe to a wider clientele (socially and geographically). After the advent of Louis XVI and the appointment of the Count d'Angiviller, who favored the grand genre, to the Direction des Bâtiments du Roi, Vernet sought to appeal even more to a private clientele sensitive to the pre-romantic aesthetic. and compete with history painters at the Salon, by depicting the accidents of nature and human drama. Storms and shipwrecks were subjects that made the painter famous, right from his Roman period. Present in Dutch painting of the Golden Age, "which continued to seduce artists and enthusiasts in the 18th century", they were particularly prized by British clients, whose "Grand Tour" of Europe took them across the English Channel and, occasionally, the Mediterranean. With his return to France and his admission to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1753, Vernet had a strong presence at the Salon, where he won over both the public and the critics. From 1759 onwards, Diderot took up the pen to comment on the works exhibited, and was captivated by the painter, about whom he wrote probably his finest pages of art criticism. In 1768, the philosopher acquired a Tempête by the artist, which he considered, in his Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre, to be his most necessary and precious possession. With the changes that took place in 1774 at the head of the kingdom and the Direction des Bâtiments du Roi, Salon observers became more severe, reproaching Vernet "who continued to be overwhelmed by commissions" with repeating himself. In fact, judging by the number of "tempests" referenced for the 1780s in Florence Ingersoll-Smouse's catalog raisonné of paintings, the theme remained very much present in the artist's mature years, right up to La Mort de Virginie (based on the novel by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre), painted in 1789, the year of Joseph Vernet's death. Although the circumstances surrounding the painting's production are complex, two referenced works may nevertheless correspond to this Naufrage. Our painting can initially be compared with an engraving depicting a shipwreck and bearing the following indications: "I. Vernet. 1770 / Des[siné] par Michailoff 1812 / S. Petersburg / Gravé chez Klauber / du Cabinet de M.r Duval / hauteur 25 1?4 largeur 32 pouces". This information was misinterpreted by Florence Ingersoll-Smouse in her 1926 catalog raisonné of paintings (Ingersoll-Smouse, 1926, t. II, no. 1132, repr.). The date of 1770 corresponds, in all probability, to the execution of the painting by Joseph Vernet (and not his brother Ignace, who died in 1762). The plate was engraved by or "at" Ignaz Sebastian Klauber (Augsburg, 1753 - St. Petersburg, 1817) from a design by Michailoff - the date 1812 must refer to the date of execution of the engraving. On this date, the painting used as a model, whose dimensions are specified (H. 25 1?4; W.
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