CHARLES FRANÇOIS LACROIX DE MARSEILLE (Marseille, 1700 - Berlin, 1779/1782) Mediterranean harbour view Oil on canvas, 70.5X100.5 cm Lacroix de Marseille's production is characterised by going beyond the classical landscape, anticipating solutions of Enlightenment and Romantic taste following the example of Vernet and Manglard. After his apprenticeship with Vernet in France, he worked 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 reveal a refined pictorial conduction, capable of interpreting the luminosity of the Italian south with skilful transparent drafts and narrative aspects that will serve as an example for much of the 19th century. We have little information about the painter's life, however, except for his presence in Rome from 1750 to 1776 when he exhibited at the Exposition du Colisée in Paris. His first known work is a view of a seaport signed and dated 'Grenier. de La. Crois. fecit Rom 1750' and in 1751 he made four copies from Vernet, but only after the master left the eternal city in 1753 to return to France did Lacroix's paintings take on a greater autonomy of style. In the work presented here, Vernet's influence is most evident and can be dated to the end of the 7th decade. 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