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For the current artist, commissioned artwork is made based on the buyer's design, while also taking a little inspiration from artwork of the time period, and favoring the buyer's outlook. Claude-Joseph Vernet was a famous painter during the mid-18th century, who specialized in commissioned artwork throughout his career. He implemented his own style, and incorporated the art era at the time in his work. For example, his painting A Seaport at Sunset illustrates an imaginary seaport with elements of Italy during sunset.
The painting is an oil painting that was created in 1749, with the dimensions 44-7/8 x 64-5/8 inches. It is from the Putnam Foundation Collection, and is currently on display at the Timken Museum of Art. Although Vernet’s landscape A Seaport at Sunset was a commissioned artwork, I posit that his use of multiple characters, unfocused but balanced landscape, and spatial design uses standards of the Late Baroque and Rococo era. This is proven in the way his work illustrates imaginary and real landmarks in realistic situations, on an imposing intricate scale.
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By analyzing all aspects of the piece to identify its relation to the art of the time, it would be beneficial to look at the use of design and composition, the artist's history, as well as the landmarks, inspiration, and patronage of the piece.
The seascape illustrated by Vernet is divided into three sections: the foreground, the middle ground, and the background. The foreground contains the subject of the loading dock as well the first two boats on the left side of the painting.
The middle ground is the center-left boat shooting a canon, as well as the land, lighthouse, and the arc. The background is the sky, smaller boats, and the mountain with the building at the end. Each section delineates a specific goal in respect to placement, effect, and meaning to the artist.
The foreground of this picture shows several people at a dock and loading boats. As stated in the title, the time is near dusk so the colors are shaded. The main colors of the townspeople seem to revolve around blues, reds, greens, whites, browns, and beiges. The realism of the folk gives us our first sign of Vernet's attention to detail — it’s almost as if every character has a different set of clothing. We can infer that the clothes are made of different materials due to the stylistic choices of how they falls on each person’s different position , the way they shine in the sunlight, and the way they are affected by the seaport wind. There is great detail portraying the center group bidding farewell to a sailor, shown in the use of shadow on the large group extending to the ends of the second step. Motion is also a big aspect seen in the foreground, as there are believable reactions and interactions to conversations and dogs who are chasing each other. Literal lines in this image are found in creating the steps, which give us a sense of direction as to where the departing boats are headed.
The size of the bottom right boat shows us its proportion compared to the people. The curved mast is pointing towards the lighthouse which directs the boats;on the masts are also blue flags, which differ from those on the larger boats. The boats on the left side of the portrayal are darker than those subjects on the steps. We can presume that there is a larger building or boat covering the sun from both ships. This ground of the image revolves around curves due to the movement of the people and the boat shape. The boats bring different textures to the scene, such as wood - which we caught a small glimpse of in the barrels and the fallen boat - and how it interacts with the curtain and people's mobility, such as the man who is kneeling next to the wooden seat. The roofing on the farther boat shows different aspects of lighting as the woman who is the farthest away is lighter than the shadowed men who have their backs to us . The boats in the foreground begin as clear figures, followed by the smaller boats in the middle ground. The ships in this painting could be deemed the most structured part of the image.
Meanwhile, the middle ground specializes in introducing us to the significant parts of the location of the painting, and familiarizing us with the circumstances of the people. Using lines in the depiction of the ships presents once again Vernet's perfectionist manners. With the boat’s formation, we can also see the people who are going towards it and managing the boat. They are small and not given much detail other than the perceivable action of standing on the rope ladders or walking on the end of the ship. The ship is brown with the sails being beige and golden depending on which direction the light is traveling . On the side of the ship there is a canon that had just been shot, showing a glimpse of yellow and red resembling the fire starting, along with a mix of grays to show the smoke. Perched on both the front, back, and top of the ship are Dutch flags, which we can also see more of on the background. They both differ in the saturation and opacity,the back flag having less contrast with its background.
On the left side of the middle ground, there is a lighthouse and an arch behind it. A combination of browns, beiges, and blues creates a rusty older look on the lighthouse. In proportion to the other aspects of the painting, the lighthouse seems much closer than it is. We can see through the size of the people walking around it and the boats docked there that the lighthouse is several miles away. There are many people placed sparsely throughout the base and the entrance of the lighthouse, showing how busy the seaport is in totality not only at the shipping dock. The structure of the lighthouse is made up on circles, a decagon base and a curved top. The lighthouse is also in the shadow - most likely being covered by a cloud not seen - the arch is shined on to. The arch is also made up of the same color scheme as the boathouse, but with much more brightness and contrast to the other sections of the painting, emphasising the arch rather than the lighthouse or the surrounding boats. The arches composition is straight and rectangular having the arcs being the only circular section to this building.
The background of this image can be identified through its absence of contrast.As if being covered by a layer of sea breeze, the image is reflected with the color choice between its objects. The sea greenish hue combines with the golden brown of the beginning of the mountain, leaving a small but significant border with the brownish white line. The ships in this section of artwork, are much smaller due to proportion and have less detail than the massive sized ship in the middle ground. Having most of them covered with the smoke from the cannon of the biggest ship, or fading off into the distance leads us to focus on the center ship in the middle ground. The ships also have several Dutch flags as well, even though they are not in as much detail, due to the light exposure for these flags compared to those on the largest ship.
The mountains on the bottom right corner behind the lighthouse and the arch are in the same dynamics of opacity as the ships on the other side of the illustration. The colors on these mountains vary depending on where the light, shadow, and opacity react. While the farther center of them fades behind a ship, it grows to a lighter green, yellow, and orange color. On the tip of the mountain there are a few green specks as it is far from the water, and the mountain is pure and golden but still in little contrast. The closest section to the arc is a building with a tall surrounding fence made of the same material, which is comprised circular and rectangular shapes. The elements of that middle edge are all lit the same way, with having no direct light towards them and fading as the elements get farther. The side of the mountain has more contrast than the mountains it is in front of, but it creates a border between both the middle and the background.
The most spacious aspect of this painting is the sky, which consists of clouds of varying colors including dark grey, golden yellow, and white. The sky is also filled with check mark shaped birds in color of white, black and grey. The absence of detail in the birds is due to the perspective of them being far off from illustration’s point of view. The clouds are made with several layers, as there are much lighter white clouds underneath both the golden and darker clouds. The clouds have a spherical, curved formation, creating an illusion of wind and mass in the sky.
The completeness of this oil painting is due to the completion of the composition through each aspect meticulously placed and directioned to the next. By the way the broken down ship leads to the lighthouse, the smaller boats departing the dock, and the staircase leading to the ship. The significant imbalance between the land and sea with the sky allow for a larger story and a focus on where the boats will be going to in the future— the unknown.
Claude-Joseph Vernet was an artist during the mid-18th century that was known for making “imaginary Italianate landscapes and marines (Conisbee, French Paintings).” According to Philip Conisbee French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, he was born in Avignon in 1714 and lived until 1789. He was the son of an architectural decorative artist. He began his work in the city where he was born, in the artist's studio of Philippe Salvan and Jacques Viali. Vernet’s popularity rose after meeting Joseph de Setyres, who sponsored his work and introduced him to churchmen and political heads. His work was known for being topographical: meaning that it depicted places, buildings, and natural prospects in a realistic and detailed manner. His style was sometimes like a double-edged sword, sometimes being implied as drawing “on the tradition of ideal landscape painting” or by his “study of nature a more empirical and observed approach [...] creating what seemed to his contemporaries a more vivid and convincing impression of nature” (Conisbee, French Paintings).With such a wide expectation of his work, those who commissioned paintings from him differentiated between their focus. Later in his career, his painting devalued due to the abundance of copies of the same artwork. Such as with A Seaport at Sunset whose patronage was a big influence on small details throughout the painting.
To this day the patronage is still unknown for A Seaport at Sunset. As told by the Balboa Park Commons, the “painting may have been commissioned by a Dutch client.” This inference came from the detail of the center man waving goodbye wearing a Dutch Naval Officer uniform. The largest ships and those in front of it also have several Dutch flags attached to it. However, the landmarks surrounding the scene are from Italian locations. The arc on the near bottom right side and covered by a mast of a lateen-rigged ship is the Arch of Constantine from Rome which leads to the lighthouse. The lighthouse seen on the mid-right side is from Naples. The lateen-rigged ship that is covering the Arch of Constantine is a “type common to the eastern Mediterranean” (Balboa Park Commons, A Seaport at Sunset). Inspiration for this art piece not only came from his native country of Italy for a foreign commissioner, but also from Salvator Rosa.
Salvator Rosa was also an Italian artist during the Baroque era whose biggest influence on Vernet would be his use of “rude and wild characters” (Conisbee, Salvator Rosa and Claude-Joseph Vernet). This indication inferred from his use of characters being the moments, by which in Seaport he has people saying their goodbyes, dogs running around the port, people talking, and ladies looking at the sunset. Rosa could be identified by pieces in which objects were overshadowed by two-thirds of the piece focusing on the sky. It can also be by the use of the cannon covering up the ships ahead of the largest ship in our view. His basis on Italian implementation in his artwork was also seen in the way he painted.
Being from central Italy and basing some his landmarks form this piece there, he made it using the colourito technique rather than the disengo technique (Conisbee, Salvator Rosa and Claude-Joseph Vernet). The colourito technique based itself on having the artist start the painting by painting on the canvas with no prior planning. In contrast to the disegno which was used more often with artist from Venice, “drawing or design” were given more of an importance (Kliner, 266). The discussion for this argument began during the Renaissance era, with such distinction on Vernet placed after said discussion.
As mentioned before, patrons on a work include the direction of said person, which is why the influence from the time sometimes varies. A Seaport at Sunset was made during 1749 placing it in the turn of the Late Baroque era and Early Rococo. Fred Kleiner explains in Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Concise Global History Fourth Edition that the Baroque era was known for “Baroque artists revealed in dynamism, theatricality, and elaborate ornamentation, often on a grandiose scale (287).” Seaport has extremely detailed sections from the accounts of clothing texture and color, reflection of color, and realistic interpretation of ships and landmarks. We can include Caravaggio as he too emphasised his work with the experimental use of light (Kleiner, 293). With the statement of the seaport being at sunset, we have several different aspects of light in places such as the lighthouse and the arc, the way the wind reflects on the sails and from the stairs, and the difference in hues of the sky. For the Early Rococo era, the work is symbolized through their use of “naturalness” in artists’ depictions of landscapes (Kleiner, 321).” Vernet’s artwork was known for being realistic, as mentioned before, and he clearly exemplifies it in his use of basing the ships on those actually used in the Mediterranean at that time, and by having an experienced view of the landscape and the way the flags, sails, and clothing flow due to the wind at the port. Even though the artwork was a commissioned piece, the elements of the era were still in place and created a piece that reflected that time.
In conclusion, Vernet's own interpretation and use of-the-art principles around him were not defined his work not by the patronage of his work. A Seaport at Sunset illustrates an imaginary port with real life implementation of landscapes and people interactions. Through his attention to detail and perfectionist ideals, he created a monumental design of a seaport at sunset where everyone could be able to identify themselves there.
Overview Of Activities And Features Of Claude-Joseph Vernet. (2024, Feb 22). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/overview-of-activities-and-features-of-claude-joseph-vernet-essay
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