- 37
Pierre-Jacques Volaire Toulon 1729 - circa 1790/1800 Italy
bidding is closed
Description
- Pierre-Jacques Volaire
- a mediterranean port by moonlight with fishermen pulling in their nets
- signed lower centre: le Cer Volaire.f.
- oil on canvas
Provenance
H.H. Brand, Kingswood, Surrey;
His sale et al., London, Christie's, 12 May 1950, lot 140, 70 guineas to Bruce;
With Wildenstein & Co., London, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1952.
His sale et al., London, Christie's, 12 May 1950, lot 140, 70 guineas to Bruce;
With Wildenstein & Co., London, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1952.
Catalogue Note
This picture is likely to be an early work by Volaire and was most probably painted in Toulon between 1755 and 1764, when he served as an assistant to Claude-Joseph Vernet on the latter's famous series of the Ports de France. The composition is in fact based upon a painting of 1759 by Vernet, formerly in the Youssoupoff collection in St. Petersburg (for which see F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Paris 1926, vol. I, p. 92, no. 726bis, reproduced fig. 175). Vernet's original design of early morning mist has here been adapted by Volaire to a moonlit scene. In fact, moonlit scenes such as this were increasingly to become a speciality of Volaire's after he entered into independent practice in 1764, culminating in his famous series of views of the Eruption of Vesuvius.