Shore near Tivoli, Claude Joseph Vernet, Etching

Shore near Tivoli
Claude Joseph Vernet (painter)
Jacques Aliamet (engraver)
Etching
18th century

Size: 43 x 53 cm
Frame size: 58 x 68 cm

New frame.

Dedicated to Monseigneur Le Duc de la Rochefoucauld Peer of France.
By his very humble and very obedient Servant
J.ALIAMET engraver of the King and of Imperial and Royal M and M
(R.Portalis and H. Béraldi 7)

The original painting is kept at the Minneapolis Institute of Art,
painted for Frédéric-Jérôme de la Rochefoucauld (1701-1757).

"This Vernet is a great magician, one would think that he begins by creating a country and that there are men, women, children in reserve, with whom he populates his canvas as one populates a colony, then he makes them the sky, the weather, the season, the happiness, the unhappiness that he pleases"
Diderot

Claude Joseph known as Joseph Vernet (1714-1789)
With Joseph Vernet and his descendants, the continuity of the Avignon School is affirmed one last time, which since the 14th century has continued to manifest itself through artists of very different talents and characters. The origin of this school can be traced back to the time when Pope Clement V (Bertrand de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux) moved the Pontifical Court to Avignon. In Avignon, which has preserved so many vestiges intact, Joseph could admire many monuments that gave him a taste of Italy, such as the Hôtel de la Monnaie and the Palace of Cardinal Borghese.
Joseph felt this call from Italy early on; his father, Antoine Vernet, was fortunate enough to interest several noble figures in the city in the brilliant gifts of the young painter, such as the Marquis de Caumont, who opened their purses to him and allowed him to leave for Rome.
During the journey, in Marseilles, he encountered the sea. Indeed, from the heights of the city, it appeared to him for the first time; it was love at first sight.
His destiny was set; he would become a painter of the sea, which would henceforth be present in all his works.
Life in Rome was very pleasant; he developed a clientele there, eager for storms and shipwrecks.
In 1743, he was made a member of the Academy of Saint Luke, a rare honor for a foreigner. His popularity grew and his clientele became European. In Italy he found fortune, glory and love, but decided to return to settle in France in 1753.
Thanks to the patronage of Monsieur de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour, supreme director of Fine Arts who was favoured by Louis XV, Vernet obtained a commission from the king where he was to give the full measure of his talent: The Ports of France.
These ports of France will be landscapes where truth and fantasy blend pleasantly, witness this luminous and golden Port of Marseilles, which shows us in the foreground a group gathered for a snack, another for a ball. The dresses and umbrellas of the women enliven this landscape with noble lines and give it an air of family celebration.
A desire for humanisation is found in Vernet's works, even in those where it could seem artificial; even in storms and thunderstorms, man opposes the blind force of nature with courage and ingenuity.
Two periods stand out in his production, a Roman period marked by Neapolitan painters such as Salvator Rosa. He owes them this dramatic feeling of nature and this breadth of workmanship of the first works.
After returning to France, his art becomes more human and enriched with tasty details that give it a large part of its charm. After Boucher's Fêtes Galantes and Boucher's Bergeries, nature as Vernet conceives it and however prepared it may seem to us, is a true nature and not an opera set.

Jacques Aliamet (1726-1788)
Born in Abbeville in 1726, he is the son of the merchant Antoine Aliamet. From a very young age, Jacques shows a very lively taste for drawing. He was about fifteen years old when his parents gave him as a master the artist Philippe-Auguste Lefevre who encouraged him in his desire to devote himself to the Fine Arts. After eighteen months it was decided that Jacques would go to Paris. Lefevre entrusted him to Robert Hecquet who then had him join Le Bas, where he quickly became one of his favorite students.
After two or three years in the workshop of the famous engraver Jacques placed himself under the direction of Crale Van Loo, then director of the Royal Academy.
For 6 months he devoted himself exclusively to the study of drawing. He then left this new master to settle down, and shortly after married Marie Henot, daughter of Hecquet. He had five children.
Aliamet was a member of the Royal Academy. This charming artist was one of the most brilliant engravers of his time, his burin is of admirable sureness, his point is no less remarkable. His pure etching proofs are charming, fresh, light and of a very pretty color; they testify to his perfect knowledge of drawing.
He is finally one of the eight engravers chosen to reproduce the bat

Ref: 3PECCQE7SJ