Coast Scene with a British Man of War (Alternative Title: A Rocky Mediterranean Coastal Landscape with Fisher Folk, and a British Man-O'War Offshore)

Claude-Joseph Vernet 1714 - 1789

Summary

Vernet was a French artist, who was active in Italy from 1734 to 1753. His work was widely commissioned and collected by the British, often via his Irish father-in-law, and he was an important contact in Italy for many leading British artists and designers of the day, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, Richard Wilson and Robert Adam. In 1762 Vernet settled in Paris, where this work was painted. The recent completion of a lengthy commission to paint the ports of France for Louis XV made him one of the most successful painters of his day and earned him further commissions across Europe. This painting, a typical imaginary view evoking the rocky Neapolitan coastline bathed in the golden glow of sunset, is likely to have been one of two paintings ordered by Mr Foley, a banker, for an unidentified English patron, on 14 January 1766. The location is the Bay of Baiae, with the island of Procida visible in the distance. The motif of a lighthouse guarding a rocky coastline occurs often in Vernet's oeuvre.

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Grand Tour and Grand Style The Influence of Travel Improvements in European travel during the 1700s had a wide-ranging impact on British culture. A particularly significant influence was the Grand Tour, which became almost obligatory for young gentlemen. Grand Tourists were led across Europe by tutors to study art, history and politics for two or three years. The Grand Tour focused on Italy, particularly Rome, and often incorporated new archaeological sites such as those at Herculaneum and Pompei, near Naples. Ancient antiquities were heavily trafficked across Europe and continental works of art flooded into Britain. A period of especially active collecting took place between the end of the Seven Years War in 1763 and the rise of Napoleon in the 1790s. As more artists and designers also visited the continent their work became increasingly informed by travel. The serious themes of classical antiquity and European art led to a new departure in painting called the Grand Style. This championed classical, historical or literary subjects, and inspired radical changes in portraiture and landscape. Widespread interest in Greek and Roman remains also fostered fresh interpretations of ancient designs by pioneers of decorative art such as Josiah Wedgwood.