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'Coastal Scene (La Nuit)', c.1750-3
by C.J. Vernet
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Vernet, the son of a decorative painter from Avignon moved to Rome in 1734, where
he established an international reputation as a painter of harbours and coastal
views before returning to France in 1753.
British Grand Tourists made up about half his patrons in Italy. The Ashmolean painting
is a variation of one of a set of four ovals commissioned by Lord Milltown showing
The Times of Day. These sets were very popular depicting different effects of light
and atmosphere. Morning was a tempestuous shipwreck, Midday a sandy bay, Evening
a busy harbour and Night in calm and tranquil mood.
Vernet specialised in imaginary views of the Italianate coast, evocative souvenirs
of a journey taken from Rome to the Bay of Naples bv most rich tourists. The artist
made topographical paintings during his own visits and then generalised based upon
sharp observation and detailed drawings of landmarks, ships and nature, out of doors.
He aimed to introduce variety and contrasting effects of nature in her different
moods.
'La Nuit' is a striking composition showing a harbour with a rising moon bathing
the grey, rippling water with a silvery light, irradiating the sky in both a naturalistic
and magical way. Vernet told a student he had spent his life studying the sky and
learned a new lesson every day. (Turner’s first exhibited oil painting, 'Fishermen
at Sea', 1796, acknowledges a debt to Vernet’s moonlight.)
Vignettes of everyday activities enliven the scene. Fishermen on a boat bring in
their nets in a curving movement which culminates in a circle of local figures,
reddened by the glow of a fire on which supper is cooking, while they gossip. In
the distance under a picturesque rocky arch (based on a motif from antique art)
tiny horses and riders speed away. Perhaps they bear cargo unloaded from the stately
galleon, which balances the right side of the composition.
In the foreground an obedient dog sits close to a solitary man with a fishing rod
and our eye travels through the misty atmosphere to a glimpse of a lighthouse only
just visible on the far distant horizon.
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© Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
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