{{Short description|French painter (1714–1789)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Claude Joseph Vernet | image = Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun - Joseph Vernet (1778).jpg | image_upright = 1 | caption = ''[[Portrait of Joseph Vernet]]'' by [[Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun|Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun]], 1778 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1714|8|14|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Avignon]], [[Papal States]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1789|12|3|1714|8|14|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | field = [[Painting]] | training = | movement = | works = <!-- which ones are important? --> | module = {{Infobox person|child=yes | signature = Vernet, Claude Joseph 1714-1789 15 Signature.jpg}} | children = [[Carle Vernet]]<br/>[[Marguerite Émilie Chalgrin]] }}
'''Claude-Joseph Vernet''' ({{IPA|fr|klod ʒozɛf vɛʁnɛ}}; 14 August 1714{{snd}}3 December 1789) was a French painter. His son [[Carle Vernet]] and daughter [[Marguerite Émilie Chalgrin]] were also painters.
==Life and work== [[File:Bust of Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1783 CE. From Paris, France. By Louis-Simon Boizot. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Vernet, 1783, by [[Louis-Simon Boizot]], the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], London]] Vernet was born in [[Avignon]]. When only fourteen years of age he aided his father, Antoine Vernet (1689–1753),<ref>[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/claude-joseph-vernet Claude-Joseph Vernet], [[National Gallery]] website. Accessed 19 December 2022.</ref> a skilled decorative painter, in the most important parts of his work. The panels of sedan chairs, however, could not satisfy his ambition, and Vernet left for [[Rome]]. The sight of the whales at [[Marseille]] and his voyage thence to [[Civitavecchia]] (Papal States' main port on the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]]) made a deep impression on him, and immediately after his arrival he entered the studios of whale painter [[Bernardino Fergioni]]<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Vernet|display=Vernet s.v. Claude Joseph Vernet|volume=27|page=1030}}</ref> and marine landscapist [[Adrien Manglard]].<ref name="Accademia di San Luca">{{cite web|url=https://www.accademiasanluca.eu/it/collezioni_online/pittura/archive/cat_id/1791/id/1668/marina-di-anzio |title= Marina di Anzio |publisher= [[Accademia di San Luca]] |access-date=9 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="Treccani 1"/> Manglard and Fergioni initiated Vernet into seascape painting.<ref name="Treccani 1">{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vernet_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/ |title=Vernet |publisher= [[Treccani]] |access-date=9 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="London Council">{{cite book|publisher=Greater London Council |title=Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1714-1789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzzsAAAAMAAJ&q=claude-joseph+vernet+adrien+manglard|date=1976 |pages=1728, 1739, 1747|isbn=978-0-7168-0818-3 }}</ref><ref name="Maddalo 1">{{cite book|author=Silvia Maddalo|title=Adrien Manglard (1695-1760)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwxNAAAAYAAJ&q=vernet|date=1982|publisher=Multigrafica|pages=20–28|isbn=978-88-7597-090-1 }}</ref>
In 1734, Vernet left for Rome to study landscape designers and maritime painters, like Claude Gellee [[Claude Lorrain]], where we find the styles and subjects of Vernet's paintings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/133227/claude-joseph-vernet-a-storm-on-a-mediterranean-coast-french-1767/|title=claude-joseph-vernet-a-storm-on-a-mediterranean-coast|publisher=getty.edu|access-date=19 December 2022}}</ref> [[File:Vernet, Claude Joseph - The Shipwreck - 1772.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[The Shipwreck (Vernet)|The Shipwreck]]'' (1772), [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington, D.C.]]]] According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
<blockquote>"Slowly Vernet attracted notice in the artistic milieu of Rome. With a certain conventionality in design, proper to his day, he allied the results of constant and honest observation of natural effects of atmosphere, which he rendered with unusual pictorial art. Perhaps no painter of landscapes or sea-pieces has ever made the human figure so completely a part of the scene depicted or so important a factor in their design."<ref name="EB1911" /></blockquote>
In this respect he was heavily influenced by [[Giovanni Paolo Panini]], whom he probably met and worked with in Rome. Vernet's work draws on natural themes, but in a way that is neither sentimental or emotive. The overall effect of his style is wholly decorative.<ref name="Levey">{{cite book|title=Painting and Sculpture in France, 1700–1789|author=Michael Levey|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]}}</ref> "Others may know better", he said, with just pride, "how to paint the sky, the earth, the ocean; no one knows better than I how to paint a picture".<ref name="EB1911"/> His style remained relatively unchanged throughout his life. His works' attentiveness to atmospheric effects is combined with a sense of harmony that is reminiscent of [[Claude Lorrain]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2018}}
Both Vernet and Manglard are considered to have overtaken their master, Fergioni. Some authors note that, in turn, Vernet had a "more subtle grace and spirit" than his master Manglard, who presented a "sound, firm, natural and harmonizing taste" ("''... Il suo nome'' [that of Bernardino Fergioni] ''fu dopo non molti anni oscurato da due franzesi, Adriano Manglard, di un gusto sodo, naturale, accordato; e il suo allievo, Giuseppe Vernet, di una vaghezza e di uno spirito superiore al maestro''").<ref name="Maddalo 2">{{cite book|author=Silvia Maddalo|title=Adrien Manglard (1695-1760)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwxNAAAAYAAJ&q=vernet|date=1982|publisher=Multigrafica; [[University of Virginia]]|page=23|isbn=978-88-7597-090-1 }}</ref> [[File:Le rocher percé.jpg|left|thumb|296x296px|Marie Rosalie Bertaud after Claude-Joseph Vernet, ''Le rocher percé'', before 1800, engraving and etching]] For twenty years Vernet lived in Rome, producing views of seaports, storms, calms, moonlights, and large whales, becoming especially popular with English aristocrats, many of whom were on the [[Grand Tour]]. In 1745, he married an Englishwoman whom he met in the city. In 1753, he was recalled to [[Paris]]: there, by royal command, he painted the series of the seaports of France (now in the [[Louvre]] and the [[Musée national de la Marine]]) by which he is best known for.<ref name="Levey"/>
His ''The Port of Rochefort'' (1763, Musée national de la Marine) is particularly notable; in the piece Vernet is able to achieve, according to art historian [[Michael Levey]], one of his most 'crystalline and atmospherically sensitive skies'. Vernet has attempted to bring the foreground of his work to life through painting a wide array of figures engaging in a variety of activities, endeavouring to convey the sense of the commotion and drama of France's seaports.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}
In 1757, he painted a series of four paintings titled ''[[Four Times of the Day (Joseph Vernet)|Four Times of the Day]]'' depicting the four times of the day. Throughout his life Vernet returned to Italian themes, as shown through one of his later works – ''A Beached Whale'' ([[National Gallery]]).<ref name="Levey"/> On his return from Rome he became a member of the academy, but he had previously contributed to the exhibitions of 1746 and following years, and he continued to exhibit, with rare exceptions, down to the date of his death, which took place in his lodgings in the Louvre on 3 December 1789.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
Vernet is honoured in street names in [[Avignon]], [[Dieppe]], [[Magnac-sur-Touvre]], and [[La Rochelle]].
Among the very numerous engravers of his works may be specially cited [[Jacques-Philippe Le Bas|Le Bas]], [[Charles-Nicolas Cochin|Cochin]], [[Pierre-François Basan|Basan]], [[Pierre Duret|Duret]], [[Charles Joseph Flipart|Flipart]] and [[Jean-Jacques Le Veau|Le Veau]] in France, and in England [[François Vivares|Vivares]].<ref name="EB1911"/>
In Madrid, the Spanish capital, some of his paintings are found, in the [[Prado Museum]], which holds five of his landscapes<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/artista/vernet-claude-joseph/108a4328-e291-4963-b47a-14c07e329565|title=Vernet, Claude-Joseph - Colección|website=Museo Nacional del Prado|language=es|access-date=29 September 2019}}</ref> and at the [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/vernet-claude-joseph|title=Vernet, Claude-Joseph|website=Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza|language=en|access-date=29 September 2019}}</ref> who owns other two and a third as a loan from the [[Carmen Cervera|Baroness Thyssen]] personal collection (''Night: Mediterranean Coast Scene with Fishermen and Boats'').
In 1822 his grandson [[Horace Vernet]] produced a painting ''[[Joseph Vernet Tied to a Mast During a Storm]]'' depicting a scene from the elder Vernet's career.
==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed" heights="200"> File:Dieppe 1765.jpg|''View of Dieppe'' File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - The four times of day- Night - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Night'' File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - Nuit- Scène côte méditerranéenne avec les pêcheurs et les bateaux.jpg|''Mediterranean night'' File:Italian Landscape by Claude Joseph Vernet 1738.JPG|''Italian Landscape'' (1738) File:Carlo di Borbone a caccia di folaghe sul lago di Licola 001.jpg|''[[Charles of Bourbon Hunting Coots on Lake Licola]]'' (1746), Museo di Capodimonte, Naples File:Shipwrec-vernet.jpg|''Shipwreck'' (1759), Groeninge Museum, Bruges File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast - Google Art Project.jpg|''A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast'' File:Marquês de Pombal, por Claude Joseph Vernet e Louis-Michel van Loo, 1766 (Câmara Municipal de Oeiras).png|''Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal'' (1767), Museu da Cidade de Lisboa File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A Calm at a Mediterranean Port - Google Art Project.jpg|''A Calm at a Mediterranean Port'' (1770-80s) File:Joseph Vernet - Shipwreck - WGA24740.jpg|''Shipwreck'' File:N.d. Claude Joseph Vernet--1714-1789--Cain And Abel Bringing Their Sacrifices--Crocker Art Museum--Sacramento.jpg|''Cain And Abel Bringing Their Sacrifices'', [[Crocker Art Museum]], Sacramento File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A Sporting Contest on the Tiber - c 1750 - National Gallery UK.jpg|''[[A Sporting Contest on the Tiber]]'' (1750), [[National Gallery, London]] File:Landscape at Sunset with Fishermen Returning with Their Catch by Joseph Vernet.JPG|''A Landscape at Sunset with Fishermen returning with their Catch (Calme)'' (1773), [[National Gallery, London]] File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A River with Fishermen - c 1751 - National Gallery UK.jpg|''[[A River with Fishermen]]'' (1751), [[National Gallery, London]] File:Storm sh-vernet.jpg|''[[A Storm with a Shipwreck]]'' (1754), [[Wallace Collection]] File:L'Intérieur du Port de Marseille.jpg|''[[Interior of the Port of Marseille]]'' (1754), [[Louvre]] File:View of Avignon from the right bank of the Rhone by Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1756.jpg|''[[View of Avignon from the Right Bank of the Rhone]]'' (1757), [[Louvre]] File:View of Rochefort Harbour from the Magasin des Colonies.jpeg|''[[View of Rochefort Harbour from the Magasin des Colonies]]'' (1762), [[Louvre]] File:Coast scene with British man of war by Vernet.jpg|''[[Coast Scene with a British Man of War]]'' (1766), [[Manchester Art Gallery]] File:Vernet, Claude Joseph - Seaport by Moonlight - 1771.JPG|''[[Seaport by Moonlight]]'' (1771), [[Louvre]] File:Vernet-Abords-de-foire.JPG|''[[The Approach to a Fair]]'' (1774), [[Musée Fabre]] File:Construction d'un grand chemin (Louvre, INV 8831).jpg|''[[Constructing a Main Road]]'' (1774), [[Louvre]] File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A Sea-shore - c 1776 - National Gallery UK.jpg|''A Sea-shore'' (1776), [[National Gallery, London]] File:Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) - A Landscape at Sunset with Fishermen returning with their Catch - NG6600 - National Gallery.jpg|'',[[A Landscape at Sunset]]'', 1773 File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas (Tempête) - c 1773 - National Gallery UK.jpg|''[[A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas]]'' (1773), [[National Gallery, London]] File:Claude Joseph Vernet - Morning - 1933.1101 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|''Morning'' (1760), [[Art Institute of Chicago]] </gallery>
==Literary references== In [[Maria Wirtemberska]]'s novel ''Malvina, or the Heart's Intuition'' (1816; English translation 2001, by Ursula Phillips), it is said that a view that is being described merits the talent of Vernet, who as the writer explains in her own footnote was a whale painter.
Vernet's ''Tempête'' ("Storm") was commissioned from him in 1767 by French [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] philosopher [[Denis Diderot]] (1713 – 1784), payment for which was made in two installments each of 600 livres. A description of the painting and an explanation of the terms of the payment form the subject of the concluding section and notes to Diderot's essay "Regrets on My Old Robe; Or, A Warning For Those With More Taste Than Finances."
In "The Greek Interpreter" [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] has [[Sherlock Holmes]] say that his grandmother was the sister of "Vernet, the French artist." <ref>https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/834/pg834.txt</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * {{cite book |title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |date=2011 |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/display/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00190166 |chapter=Vernet, Claude Joseph, Called Joseph}} * {{cite book |last1=Conisbee |first1=Philip |title=Grove Art Online |date=2003 |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/display/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-90000371094 |chapter=Vernet, (Claude-)Joseph}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Joseph Vernet}} *{{Art UK bio}} *[http://www.gegoux.com/JosephVernet/ Life and works of Vernet] (Théodore Gégoux art gallery) *[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/vernet_claude-joseph.html C. J. Vernet online] (Artcyclopedia)
{{Claude-Joseph Vernet}} {{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernet, Claude-Joseph}} [[Category:1714 births]] [[Category:1789 deaths]] [[Category:Artists from the Papal States]] [[Category:18th-century French painters]] [[Category:French landscape painters]] [[Category:French male painters]] [[Category:French marine artists]] [[Category:Artists from Avignon]] [[Category:Painters from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur]] [[Category:18th-century French male artists]]