JEAN-FRANÇOIS HUE (SAINT-ARNOULT-EN-YVELINES, 1751 – PARIS, 1823) Fishermen and other figures on a coastline Circa 1790–1800 Oil on wooden panel 50.5 x 72.4 cm. Engaged in various activities, figures are scattered along a rocky coastline. One is angling whilst another is hauling in his net. Still others are chatting on a promontory, whilst those furthest away are manoeuvring a boat from which a long fishing rod protrudes. Positioned in the foreground, they also have a front-row view of a scene in which the backdrop is the sea and the action centres on a ship sailing off towards the horizon. In the background, the sun casts its first morning rays, bathing the scene in iridescent light. The choppy sea stirs its waves, whose crests of foam rise and fall in regular succession right up to the shore. In an atmospheric perspective, following in the footsteps of the compositions of Lorrain and, even more so, Vernet, Hue constructs this rocky bay with a succession of planes where the tones fade to suggest distance. Architecture also finds its place, the work of man thus complementing that of nature. The fort rising from the mist in the background echoes the more colourful tower overlooking the composition in the top right-hand corner. Although imaginary, this view suggests the entrance to a harbour of which we see only the fortified defensive posts. Somewhere between a genre scene and a landscape, Hue depicts a seascape in the purest tradition of the 18th century. Jean-François Hue (1751–1823) was a French landscape painter, specialising in seascapes. A pupil of Gabriel-François Doyen, he joined Joseph Vernet’s studio, where he developed his talent for landscape painting. Admitted to the Royal Academy as a landscape painter in 1782, with his *View from the Forest of Fontainebleau*, which was highly praised by the critics, Hue became one of those landscape artists who, in the final quarter of the 18th century, sketched and painted whilst in direct contact with nature. His trip to Rome in 1785 left a lasting impression on him, and he subsequently produced numerous landscapes inspired by Italian sites, populated by figures drawn from classical antiquity. However, Hue specialised in seascapes, taking an interest in the violent aspects of nature—fires, shipwrecks and storms—which enabled him to render striking effects. Following in his master’s footsteps, he became the official painter to the Navy, which led him to complete the series on the ports of France, left unfinished by Vernet, at the request of the Constituent Assembly. Between 1792 and 1800, he thus produced a series of six paintings of the ports of Brittany, now held at the Musée de la Marine in Paris. Hue exhibited at the Salon until his death, presenting on each occasion numerous works that bore witness to a prolific and refined body of work.