Lot n° 288
Estimation :
12000 - 15000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 16 900EUR
Claude-Joseph Vernet (Avignon 1714-1789 Paris) - Lot 288
Claude-Joseph Vernet (Avignon 1714-1789 Paris)
The return from fishing
Oil on canvas (original canvas)
42 x 32 cm .
Signed lower right: J. Vernet
Related works :
- Ill.1. Return from fishing, etching, 30.5 x 21.8 cm .
Metropolitan Museum, inv. 60.634.63.
- Ill.2. Pêcheurs à la ligne, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32 cm, signed and dated "j. vernet f. 1788", Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 893-1-24.
- Ill.3. Pêcheur près d'une cascade, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32 cm, signed and dated "j. vernet f. 1780", Paris, Rieunier sale (Hôtel Drouot), June 13, 2007, lot 13, sold for 41,000 euros.
Our charming "Retour de pêche" is a perfect example of the production of tableautins for private clients that Vernet produced in the last years of his life.
According to Prof. Emily Beck-Saiello, this production was born at the same time as the conception of his great cycle of "Ports de France" (1753-1765): "The painter's itinerancy (leading to frequent changes of towns and workshops), the delays of the Royal Treasury in matters of payment and the strong demand from customers in the various towns of the kingdom, led Vernet to produce paintings for a bourgeois, local clientele, according to a tight schedule. At the time, Joseph Vernet enjoyed an international reputation, which he had built up in Italy among Grand Tour travelers, and which the royal commission had only amplified. This is why most works from the French period are signed - a painting by Vernet being, for its owner, a veritable "social marker".
The interest of our painting is that it offers a snapshot of the life of a family of fishermen on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the end of a peaceful afternoon: the catch has been good, the basket is weighed down by the weight of the fish, the fisherman's wife and son are delighted and prepare to load it onto the back of their donkey.
This kind of quo tidian scene is a lesser-known and rarer part of Tivoli than storms, seascapes and waterfalls.
After the "Ports de France" exhibition at the Salon (from 1755 to 1765), the engraver Jacques-Philippe Le Bas published a series of prints in 1767 that popularized some of the most picturesque figures in the series. Vernet himself tried his hand at engraving, and chose to illustrate a "fishing return" (ill.1.).
Prof. Emily Beck-Saiello knew of a copy of our painting in reverse, implying that our work was engraved, proof of its success.
It is conceivable that these tableautins were presented in pairs, to enhance their decorative character: a probable counterpart to our painting can be found in Quimper (ill.2), unless it is a painting offered on the market in 2007 (ill.3).
We would like to thank Prof. Emily Beck-Saiello, a specialist on the artist, for confirming our attribution in a letter dated 2024, and for providing us with information on the context in which our work was created.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue