Vernet, Joseph

(1714-1789)

   painter, engraver

   one of the leading landscape and seascape artists of his era, Joseph Vernet, who was born in Avignon, was the son of a painter and engraver. He began his career by decorating various works, then traveled and studied in Italy. An admirer of nicolas poussin and le lorrain, he painted views of Rome, Naples, and their environs. Combining landscapes and genre scenes, he depicted small figures going about their daily activities. His carefully planned paintings, rendered with finesse the limpidity of the atmosphere and the particular quality of Mediterranean light (Château Saint-Ange, Pont Rotto), presaging the Italian landscapes of camille corot. In 1753, Ver-net was commissioned to paint a series of 24 French ports. Between 1753 and 1762, he produced 14, skillfully meeting the requirements of the commission with topographic precision. He then painted alpine landscapes and, for the public, maritime scenes—moonlights, storms, tempests, shipwrecks— with slight nuances and widely chromatic formats, but ones that reveal a personalized view of nature.