CHARLES FRANÇOIS LACROIX DE MARSEILLE (attr. to) (Marseille, 1700 - Berlin, 1779/1782) Mediterranean harbour view with figures Coastal view with vessel and fishermen Oil on canvas, 42X31 cm (2) Provenance: Milan, Eugenio Imbert Antiquario (second label on the back) Milan, private collection The paintings are an 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, 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 then certainly 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. In the canvases under scrutiny, one can discern a refined pictorial conduction, capable of interpreting the luminosity of southern Italy with skilful transparent layers and narrative aspects that will serve as an example for 19th century painting. Having said this, the work's provenance from the gallery of Eugenio Imbert in Milan, an antiquarian who opened his first premises at 38 Via Monte Napoleone and later at 3 Via Santo Spirito in the early 20th century and whose personality embodies the typical figure of a collector, antiquarian and connoisseur, is worth mentioning here. We know that Eugenio comes from a family with an antiquarian tradition, in fact, his brother Alexandre, born in Naples on 3 April 1865 was the owner in 1897 in Rome of the Galerie A. Imbert / Objets d'art anciens et de haute curiosité / spécialité de tableaux des grànd maîtres based in the Palazzo Caffarelli in Via Condotti, but his brother Jules was also an antiquarian, but in Florence. Reference bibliography: F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marine 1714-1789, Paris 1926, ad vocem J. L. de Los Llanos, È. Beck Saiello, J. L Ryaux, Tivoli, Variations sur un paysage au XVIIIème siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2010, ad vocem