JEAN HENRY D'ARLES (attr. to) (Arles, 1734 - Marseilles, 1784) Port view with figures Oil on canvas, 95X120.5 cm Provenance: Munich, Hampel, 25 March 2021, lot 636 Around the middle of the 18th century, the critical and commercial fortune of Claude Joseph Vernet (Avignon, 1714 ; Paris, 1789) was extraordinary and his works considerably influenced landscape painters. From 1733 to 1753, the artist worked in Rome with Hubert Robert and conceived a dramatic and emotional style, particularly in his seascape paintings, which were promptly imitated by Carlo Bonavia, Francesco Fidanza, Lacroix de Marseille and Henry D'Arles. These authors contributed to the international spread of the Vernettian landscape taste that was to characterise the genre of vedute until the Romantic era. The elaboration of these themes also contributed to the creation of views in the 'picturesque' taste, with themes and subjects that in the southern area during the 19th century declined in the oleographic production of gouache, in which the landscape is mixed with the genre scene. The canvas in question can be traced back to Jean-Henry d'Arles, probably painted following his apprenticeship with Vernet and his Italian sojourn, and thus datable to his maturity. We can also say that the cultural aspects of these works 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 land determine the character and history of peoples. This assumption undoubtedly influenced the overcoming of the classical landscape by anticipating solutions of Enlightenment and Romantic taste.