CLAUDE-JOSEPH VERNET AND STUDIOAVIGNON 1714 - 1789 PARIS | A storm near a rocky coast

Probably Comte Valicky;
Probably M. Duval, Geneva, his sale, London, Meffre/Phillips, 12-13 May 1846, lot 76, bought by the Duc de Morny (2150 livres; no measurements mentioned);
Probably Duc de Morny;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 8 December 2011, lot 265, where acquired by the father of the present owner (the provenance, exhibitions and literature are those of another painting).

Probably F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, vol. II, Paris 1926, p. 38, no. 1132 (with wrong measurements and a mix-up of the sale dates). 

By 1784 Vernet had been the foremost painter of marine subjects in France for over 40 years. He learned his trade in Italy however and it was probably through an association with Adrien Manglard in Rome, where he arrived in 1734, that he first turned to marine painting. He remained in Rome until 1753 when he was summoned back to France, on the initiative of the Marquis de Marigny who had visited Vernet's studio in Rome in 1746, in order to fulfill one of the most important commissions of the reign of Louis XV: the representation of the Ports de France, a project he continued to work on until 1765 and that was subsequently completed by Jean-François Hue (1751-1823). Vernet's style changed little throughout his career and some of his finest works date from his late maturity; see, for example, the enormous canvas (160 by 261 cm) commissioned by William Petty, 2nd Earl Shelburne and executed in 1776 at the age of 62 (sold New York, Sotheby's, 27 January 2011, lot 183, for $6.2m). Engraved by Klauber in 1770 and drawn by Michailoff in 1812 (see under Literature). The engraving only shows the central part of our painting and leaves the outer left and right edges, and was the only visual record of the painting until its recent rediscovery.