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拍品专文
Signed and dated ‘1747’, this idyllic coastal landscape, which originally formed part of a set of four paintings by the artist in the Drake collection, is a particularly fine work from Vernet’s Roman period. Executed on an impressively large scale (toile d’empereur), it displays his keen observational skills and his mastery of atmospheric light effects.
Born in Avignon in 1714, Vernet almost certainly studied under Philippe Sauvan, the city’s leading painter. He had established such a reputation by 1734 that he was able to travel to Italy under the sponsorship of Joseph de Seytres, le marquis de Caumont (1688-1745). He settled in Rome, where he had an introduction to the painter, Adrien Manglard and quickly came to the attention of potential patrons. His marriage in 1745 to Virginia Parker, daughter of the Irish Mark Parker, created a useful link with British patrons. Vernet quickly established himself as the contemporary counterpart to Claude, in his rendition of atmosphere, and to Rosa in the drama of his coastal scenes. These were often commissioned in pairs or sets of four of complementary but contrasting character. This canvas, the subject of which (‘un broüillard’) was evidently specified by Drake, is a key early example of what was to become a speciality of the painter.
William Drake, whose family had acquired Shardeloes by marriage in the seventeenth century and was proud of its connection with Sir Francis Drake, was educated at Westminster and Brasenose, Oxford. He set out on the Grand Tour on 22 September 1742, accompanied by James Dawkins of Laverstoke (who with Robert Wood was to publish the pioneering book on the ruins at Baalbec and Palmyra), the somewhat older Rev. Thomas Townson and his veteran tutor, the Jacobite Edward Holdsworth. The party was in Florence in 1743 and reached Rome by Easter, 1744. He, with Townson and Holdsworth, were in Naples in October 1744, but returned to Rome by early 1745 when he and Dawkins almost simultaneously ordered sets of landscapes from Vernet. While in Rome, he also commissioned pictures from Giovanni Paolo Panini, Orizzonte, and Hendrick Frans van Lint.
Drake’s family had controlled the borough of Agmondesham (Amersham) since the elder brother of his great-great-grandfather, Sir William purchased the manor in 1637. On his return to England, Drake was duly elected as one of the two Members of Parliament for the borough, holding the seat until his death fifty years later, by when he had survived his eponymous oldest son, who from his coming of age had held the second seat. For four generations his family had married heiresses, and thus Drake was in a position to build a substantial new mansion at Shardeloes. Work only began in 1758, the year after the death of his wife. The Palladian architect, Stiff Leadbetter, was the original architect, but in 1759 Robert Adam, newly returned from Rome, was called in. He designed the entrance portico and was responsible for the internal decoration of the house, thus anticipating his subsequent role as Carr’s successor at Harewood and Paine’s at both Kedleston and Nostell. While Hatchlands, with its relatively restrained rooms, was Adam’s first major country house, Shardeloes was his first ambitious decorative scheme, and Drake’s pictures made a significant contribution to this.
When on 5 August 1774 the painter Thomas Jones visited Shardeloes he singled out for comment ‘four very Capital pictures of Vernet, which were painted for Mr. Drake during his residence at Rome—when Vernet was a young Man, rising in reputation, and Consequently in his best manner‘ (cited in Oppé, op. cit.). This encomium was wholly justified.
Born in Avignon in 1714, Vernet almost certainly studied under Philippe Sauvan, the city’s leading painter. He had established such a reputation by 1734 that he was able to travel to Italy under the sponsorship of Joseph de Seytres, le marquis de Caumont (1688-1745). He settled in Rome, where he had an introduction to the painter, Adrien Manglard and quickly came to the attention of potential patrons. His marriage in 1745 to Virginia Parker, daughter of the Irish Mark Parker, created a useful link with British patrons. Vernet quickly established himself as the contemporary counterpart to Claude, in his rendition of atmosphere, and to Rosa in the drama of his coastal scenes. These were often commissioned in pairs or sets of four of complementary but contrasting character. This canvas, the subject of which (‘un broüillard’) was evidently specified by Drake, is a key early example of what was to become a speciality of the painter.
William Drake, whose family had acquired Shardeloes by marriage in the seventeenth century and was proud of its connection with Sir Francis Drake, was educated at Westminster and Brasenose, Oxford. He set out on the Grand Tour on 22 September 1742, accompanied by James Dawkins of Laverstoke (who with Robert Wood was to publish the pioneering book on the ruins at Baalbec and Palmyra), the somewhat older Rev. Thomas Townson and his veteran tutor, the Jacobite Edward Holdsworth. The party was in Florence in 1743 and reached Rome by Easter, 1744. He, with Townson and Holdsworth, were in Naples in October 1744, but returned to Rome by early 1745 when he and Dawkins almost simultaneously ordered sets of landscapes from Vernet. While in Rome, he also commissioned pictures from Giovanni Paolo Panini, Orizzonte, and Hendrick Frans van Lint.
Drake’s family had controlled the borough of Agmondesham (Amersham) since the elder brother of his great-great-grandfather, Sir William purchased the manor in 1637. On his return to England, Drake was duly elected as one of the two Members of Parliament for the borough, holding the seat until his death fifty years later, by when he had survived his eponymous oldest son, who from his coming of age had held the second seat. For four generations his family had married heiresses, and thus Drake was in a position to build a substantial new mansion at Shardeloes. Work only began in 1758, the year after the death of his wife. The Palladian architect, Stiff Leadbetter, was the original architect, but in 1759 Robert Adam, newly returned from Rome, was called in. He designed the entrance portico and was responsible for the internal decoration of the house, thus anticipating his subsequent role as Carr’s successor at Harewood and Paine’s at both Kedleston and Nostell. While Hatchlands, with its relatively restrained rooms, was Adam’s first major country house, Shardeloes was his first ambitious decorative scheme, and Drake’s pictures made a significant contribution to this.
When on 5 August 1774 the painter Thomas Jones visited Shardeloes he singled out for comment ‘four very Capital pictures of Vernet, which were painted for Mr. Drake during his residence at Rome—when Vernet was a young Man, rising in reputation, and Consequently in his best manner‘ (cited in Oppé, op. cit.). This encomium was wholly justified.