CHARLES FRANÇOIS GRENIER DE LACROIX known as LACROIX DE MARSEILLE (attr. to) (Marseille, c. 1700 - Berlin, 1782) Coastal view with tower, vessels, boats and figures Oil on canvas, 36.2X47 cm Provenance: Probable collection of Mrs James Dunning London, Christie's, 3 July 1931, lot 8 (as Joseph Vernet) GN Northrop, West Roxbury, Massachusetts Donald R. Booz, Chicago (by 1961) New York, Sotheby's, 22 September ; 6 October 2023, lot 19 (as attributed to Lacroix De Marseille) Exhibitions: Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of Chicago Collectors, 15 April ; 17 May 1961 (as Vernet, loaned by Mrs. Donald R. Booz; see https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/4137/treasures-of-chicago-collectors) The paintings illustrated here are a small but elegant example of the Italianising landscape painting of European taste, the cultural aspects of which are markedly influenced by the Enlightenment and encyclopaedic theories elaborated above all by Montesquieu, according to which the climate, the appearance of the sky and the land determine the character and history of peoples. This assumption undoubtedly influenced the formal elaboration of Lacroix de Marseille's production, characterised by going beyond the classical landscape and anticipating solutions of Enlightenment and Romantic taste following the example of Vernet, Manglard, Carlo Bonavia and Claude Lorrain. After his apprenticeship with Vernet in France, he collaborated with the master for several years in Rome where he is documented until 1760 and was certainly later in Naples until 1776. His ideal views of the Mediterranean coastline are an admirable synthesis of realism and ornamental taste, a marine transposition of 18th century Arcadian sentiment, and a refined pictorial conduction is evident, capable of interpreting the luminosity of the Italian south with skilful transparent draftsmanship and narrative aspects that will serve as an example for much of the 19th century. Reference bibliography: F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marine 1714-1789, Paris 1926, ad vocem J. L. de Los Llanos, É. Beck-Saiello, J. L Ryaux, Tivoli, Variations sur un paysage au XVIIIème siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2010, ad vocem