CLAUDE-JOSEPH VERNET
(Avignon 1714 - 1789 Paris)
An Inlet near Naples with a Castle and Fisherfolk
Oil on canvas
63.3 x 98.8 cm
Provenance:
F. Taylor, Cotton Cottage, Langham, Oakham, Rutland, May 1963, as by Francesco Guardi.
Anon. [presumably F. Taylor] Sale, Christie's, London, 12 July 1963, lot 133, as 'Joseph Vernet' (sold for 1,000 guineas).
With Colnaghi, London (Paintings by Old Masters, 7-24 May 1968, no. 22, pl. XII), when purchased by the grandfather of the present owner.
Literature:
F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, peintre de marine, 1714-1789:
étude critique suivie d'un catalogue raisonné de son œuvre peint, Paris, 1926, II, p. 48, no. 1246, pl. CXXXI, fig. 288 (Berardi's engraving).
‘Collectors' Questions', Country Life, 30 May 1963, p. 1236, illustrated.
Engraved:
Fabio Berardi (Siena 1728 - 1788 Venice).
Florence Ingersoll-Smouse proposes a dating for this painting within Vernet's Italian period, 1734-1753, on the basis of Berardi's engraving.
The attribution, first proposed in the response to a letter from a previous owner in Country Life in 1963, was confirmed by the late Philip Conisbee, who saw the painting in the Spring of 1997, and has also been confirmed by Emilie Beck Saiello from a digital image. Dr Conisbee tentatively suggested that this painting may originally have had as a pendant A Mediterranean Port with Fisherfolk dancing on a Quay sold by the executors of the late Lady Barlow at Christie's, London, 4 July 1997, lot 65, which is of identical size, was catalogued by Ingersoll-Smouse under the immediately following number, and was also with Colnaghi, London, in c. 1968.1 Furthermore, both paintings were engraved by Berardi and both were copied by Thomas Patch (Exeter 1725 - 1782 Florence), who worked in Vernet's studio 1750-3. They are signed and measure approximately 35 x 50 in. (89 x 127 cm.); Patch's copy of this painting was commissioned by John Apthorp on 1 January 1764.2
Other versions are known, apart from the copy by Patch, including one sold from the Karl Lagerfeld Collection, Christie's, New York, 23 May 2000, lot 99, as 'Attributed to Charles-François de Lacroix, called Lacroix de Marseille'. A good period copy of similar size was on the Paris art market in 1983.
1. Ingersoll-Smouse 1926, II, p. 48, no. 1247, pl. CXXXI, fig. 289 (Berardi's engraving).
2. For the copy after this painting, see F.J.B. Watson, 'Thomas Patch: Notes on his life, together with a catalogue of his known works', The Walpole Society, XXVIII, 1939-40, p. 41, no. 39, as in the collection of Mrs W.F. Apthorp in Monte Carlo, presumably by inheritance from its first owner. Patch's copy of the possible pendant was sold at Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1985, lot 12, and at Sotheby's, New York, 6 June 2008, lot 64.