1 / 7
Catalog
Premium Joseph VERNET (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789 )
Gallant Encount…
See original version (French)
Joseph VERNET (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789 )
Gallant Encount…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 34
Description
Joseph VERNET (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789 )
Gallant Encounter of Soldiers by a River and Fishermen in Front of a Waterfall
Pair of oils on canvas
(Old restorations)
Gallant meeting of soldiers near a river and Fishermen in front of a waterfall, oils on canvases, a pair, by J. Vernet
29.33 x 38.98 in.
74.5 x 99 cm
Provenance: Probably Christie's sale, December 1935 or 1938 (according to traces of inscriptions on the reverse);
Private collection, Italy
Constructed as pendants, our works evoke Joseph Vernet's research into the representation of the different hours of the day, which accompanied the painter throughout his career. They were produced by Vernet during his stay in Italy from 1734 to 1752. As was often the case in this lesser-known period of his career, Vernet or his collaborators took up similar compositions to satisfy the considerable demand from the English clientele that he owed to his wife and father-in-law. Our paintings are based on compositions entitled by Florence Ingersoll-Smouse1 Le Soir et Le Matin, signed and dated 1747-1748. They were in the collection of Paul Cailleux in 1925 and were presented at public auction ten years ago2.
Here, Joseph Vernet carefully studied the atmospheric effects of the light that envelops the Roman countryside, taking Tivoli as his setting, of which he offers a fanciful view. For the gallant gathering of soldiers by a river, he borrowed his figures from the painter Salvator Rosa, who was a fertile source of inspiration for the painter from Avignon. By paying tribute to the Italian master, he was no doubt also responding to the wishes of his clientele, mainly English art lovers, who were particularly fond of the compositions by the Neapolitan master of the mid-seventeenth century. The motif of soldiers in a mountainous landscape with a flowing river is a recurrent one in Rosa's work3.
We would like to thank Emilie Beck for kindly confirming the authenticity of these works in an email dated 5 April 2024 and through a visual examination on 3 October 2024.
1 - Florence Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, peintre de marine 1714-1789, Paris, 1926, vol I, p. 49, no 167 ter, p. 52, no 208 bis
2 - Anonymous sale; Rémy Le Fur et associés, Hôtel Drouot, S. 5 & 6, 26 March 2014, lot 306 (sold for €115,000)
3 - Salvator Rosa's works include Polycrates and the Fisherman, Art Institute of Chicago (no. 1942.291) and the two oval landscapes in the Los Angeles County Museum of art depicting soldiers in a landscape (no. 51.44.1 and 51.44.2).
Joseph VERNET (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789 )
74.5 x 99 cm
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits:
Contact organization
Delivery methods
You may also like