Getty Museum
Mediterranean Harbor Scene
Creator
Pierre-Jacques VolaireFrench Artist · 1729–1799
All works by this person →Pierre-Jacques Volaire came from a well-known family of painters in Toulon; his father was the city's official painter. Called *le chevalier Volaire* (knight Volaire), his career really began in 1754, when Joseph Vernet arrived, sent by Louis XV to paint French ports. Vernet took Volaire as his assistant, and they traveled together for eight years. Volaire was strongly influenced by Vernet's sharp
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1763
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
>One might say that he begins by creating a place, and that he keeps men, women, and children in store to populate it, just as one might settle a colony. Then he creates the weather for them, and a sky, a season, a fortune or misfortune, as his fancy strikes him. So wrote Denis Diderot about Claude-Joseph Vernet in his 1765 Salon review. Vernet's popular views of harbors and ships led to frequent copying and imitation, especially by a group of French artists working in southern Italy who followed his lead in specializing in Mediterranean harbor scenes. In a manner characteristic of Vernet's followers, this painting's peaceful arrangement balances a delicate tree and massive building at the left with an open view on the right. Human architectural constructions frame the intermingled sea and sky. The artist enlivened the seascape with picturesque figure groupings, each engaged in a routine, yet often amusing, activity from daily life.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.