CLAUDE JOSEPH VERNET (attr. to) (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789) Mediterranean harbour view Signed Joseph Vernet S and dated Rome 1747 lower left Oil on canvas, 100X137 cm Provenance: Paris, collection C. Brunner Exhibitions: Salon de Paris du 1747, Paris, no. 124 bis; two marine Bibliography: F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet: Peintre de Marine, Paris 1926, no. 194 bis, fig. 38 Signed and dated 1747, this Mediterranean view dates from the last years of the artist's stay in Rome. In this case, he depicts the activities and relaxation of fishermen and sailors in an evening atmosphere. Vernet's talent for evoking beauty was praised by Diderot, writing that the painter had 'stolen the secret of Nature' and indeed, Vernet was one of the most important artists of the 18th century, completing the landscape evolution of his master Adriaen Manglard, whose pupil Rome he was in 1734. Thus, the painting is an elegant example of the Italianising landscape painting of European taste, whose cultural aspects are markedly influenced by the Enlightenment and encyclopaedic theories elaborated especially by Montesquieu, according to which the climate, the appearance of the sky and the territory determine the character and history of peoples (cf. F. Zeri, La percezione visiva dell'Italia e degli italiani, Turin 1976). This assumption undoubtedly influenced the formal elaboration of this pictorial genre and Vernet's creations are an admirable synthesis of realism and ornamental taste, a marine transposition of 18th century Arcadian sentiment. In the canvas under scrutiny, one can see a refined execution, capable of interpreting the luminosity of southern Italy with skilful draftsmanship and narrative aspects that will serve as an example for 19th century painting.