Claude-Joseph Vernet

Probably Godefroy Brossais Saint-Marc (1803-1878), Archbishop of Rennes;
His sale, Paris, Lainné, 14 March 1864, Lot 9 (with a pendant, lot 8, depicting a View of the Castel Sant'Angelo).

Probably F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marine, Paris 1926, vol. II, p. 92, cat. no. 1965.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas has an old lining. The stretcher is old if not original. The paint layer is probably slightly dirty, but it is not unattractive in its current condition. The retouches that have been applied are focused on the dark cloud in the upper right in the sky and in a patch in the center of the sky, where some canvas texture has become more apparent. Some slight weakness in the darkest colors in the lower right has been retouched. The condition seems very good in the bridge itself, and all of the details in the figures and architecture are similarly well preserved. The work should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

We are grateful to Emilie Beck for confirming this painting to be a work by Vernet, based on firsthand inspection.

This serene view of the Ponte Rotto and Tiber River is probably identifiable with the painting at one time in the collection of Godefroy Brossais Saint-Marc (1803-1878), Archbishop of Rennes (see Provenance) which was sold with its pendant, a View of the Castel Sant’Angelo, in 1864.  Its composition is similar to a painting of the same subject in the collection of the Musée du Louvre (inv. 8348) which also has a pendant of the Castel Sant’Angelo (signed and dated 1745). 

The so-called Ponte Rotto (or “broken bridge”) is what remains of the ancient Pons Aemilius, originally built in the 2^nd century BC.  Today there is only one arch remaining, but in Vernet’s time three arches were still intact.  The view looks across the Tiber to the East bank, with the Romanesque campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin seen in the distance and, along the river, the arched outlet of the Cloaca Maxima, the ancient Roman sewer system.  Vernet uses an almost tonal palette, bathing the scene in a beautiful silvery light.  This View of the Ponte Rotto, like the Louvre version, has an informal quality and immediacy that seem to anticipate Corot’s plein air paintings of Rome in the 19^th century.¹

 

1.  See P. Conisbee, in Claude-Joseph Vernet 1714-1789, exhibition catalogue, London 1976, under cat. no. 11.