TAPESTRY FROM THE ROYAL MANUFACTURE OF AUBUSSON, LATE 18th CENTURY, c.1770 L'Arrivée au port, part of the Marines hanging, after a cartoon by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) Woven in wool and silk; worn, reduced in width Dimensions: 298 x 427 cm (117 ¼ x 168 in.) Provenance: Sale Paris, Me Kohn, 4 May 1999, lot 53. Exhibition : Cinq siècles de tapisserie d'Aubusson, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1935. It was exhibited there under the title L'Embarquement. Bibliography: P.-F. Bertrand, Aubusson, tapisserie des Lumières. Splendours de la Manufacture royale, fournisseur de l'Europe au XVIIIe siècle, pp.279-280. An Aubusson manufactory tapestry depicting the Arrival at the Port, part of the Marines tapestry series, after a drawing by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), late 18th century, circa 1770 The theme of the Marines was very popular throughout the 18th century, and was interpreted in various European tapestries as an allusion to trade between the West and the East. The Arrival in Port is one of the four tapestries in the second hanging of seascapes by Joseph Vernet, which also includes The Shipwreck, The Merchants at the Quay and The Departure of the Caravel. This large tapestry, woven in Aubusson at the end of the 18th century, depicts a harbour scene combining oriental and antique motifs. In the foreground, a moored sailing ship welcomes an elegant young woman and her child, sailors unloading cargo, and Oriental-style figures wearing turbans and holding long pipes. The composition is enlivened by numerous boats and figures engaged in various activities. While the scene bears witness to the important commercial exchanges between East and West, and is part of the oriental fashion that lasted throughout the 18th century, it also displays a marked taste for idealised antiquity. The triumphal arch that structures the right-hand side of the composition, a possible reference to Constantine's arch, appears in a poetic dimension, where vegetation and vestige of the past intermingle, inviting us to meditate on the passage of time. Joseph Vernet's return from Italy in the mid-18th century actively helped to popularise scenes of harbours and seasides. The genre came into its own through engraving, a sure source of inspiration for many weavers' workshops.