PIERRE-JACQUES VOLAIRE | A Mediterranean Port by Moonlight with Fishermen Pulling In Their Nets
Details
Pierre-Jacques Volaire
TOULON 1729 - 1799 NAPLES
A MEDITERRANEAN PORT BY MOONLIGHT WITH FISHERMEN PULLING IN THEIR NETS
signed lower centre: Volaire.f.
oil on canvas
65.9 x 83.6 cm.; 26 x 32 7/8 in.
PROVENANCE
H.H. Brand, Esq., Kingswood, Surrey;By whom sold, London, Christie's, 12 May 1950, lot 140, for 70 Guineas to Bruce;
With Wildenstein & Co, London, 1949–52;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Private Collector'), London, Sotheby's, 11 December 2003, lot 37 for £31,200 ($54,000);
Where acquired by the present owner.
LITERATURE
E. Beck Saiello, Pierre Jacques Volaire dit le Chevalier Volaire, Paris 2010, p. 258, cat. no. P.126, reproduced (as Volaire, and possible participation from Vernet).
CATALOGUE NOTE
Pierre-Jacques Volaire was a native of Toulon, France, from a Toulonnais family of painters. As an artist, his career really began in 1754, when Joseph Vernet arrived in Toulon, sent by Louis XV to paint the French ports. Vernet took Volaire as his assistant, and they travelled together for eight years. This picture is likely to be an early work by Volaire and was most probably painted in Toulon between 1755–64, when he served as an assistant to 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.1 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.
1 F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Paris 1926, vol. I, p. 92, cat. no. 726bis, reproduced fig. 175.
TOULON 1729 - 1799 NAPLES
A MEDITERRANEAN PORT BY MOONLIGHT WITH FISHERMEN PULLING IN THEIR NETS
signed lower centre: Volaire.f.
oil on canvas
65.9 x 83.6 cm.; 26 x 32 7/8 in.
PROVENANCE
H.H. Brand, Esq., Kingswood, Surrey;By whom sold, London, Christie's, 12 May 1950, lot 140, for 70 Guineas to Bruce;
With Wildenstein & Co, London, 1949–52;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Private Collector'), London, Sotheby's, 11 December 2003, lot 37 for £31,200 ($54,000);
Where acquired by the present owner.
LITERATURE
E. Beck Saiello, Pierre Jacques Volaire dit le Chevalier Volaire, Paris 2010, p. 258, cat. no. P.126, reproduced (as Volaire, and possible participation from Vernet).
CATALOGUE NOTE
Pierre-Jacques Volaire was a native of Toulon, France, from a Toulonnais family of painters. As an artist, his career really began in 1754, when Joseph Vernet arrived in Toulon, sent by Louis XV to paint the French ports. Vernet took Volaire as his assistant, and they travelled together for eight years. This picture is likely to be an early work by Volaire and was most probably painted in Toulon between 1755–64, when he served as an assistant to 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.1 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.
1 F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Paris 1926, vol. I, p. 92, cat. no. 726bis, reproduced fig. 175.