Joseph Vernet was a representative French eighteenth-century landscape painter. After returning home from twenty years in Italy, he furthered his reputation for landscapes, especially seascapes. The bathers at the riverside, seen here, are largely incidental to the main purpose of the piece, which is to depict an Italianate landscape, albeit an imaginary one. It is the evening of a summer's day. The painting is one of a series undertaken by the artist capturing scenes at different hours of a single day, following a tradition that went back to the seventeenth century. (Source: Gallery label, July 2016)

Provenance

Lespinasse d'Artel; Auc. Lespinasse d'Artel, July 11, 1803, no. 248; De Preuil (According to the catalogue of the Auc. Boisgerard); Boisgerard; Auc. Boisgerard, Paris, March 6, 1820, no. 136; De Forest; Auc. De Forest, Paris, Apr. 21, 1873, no. 14; Henry Lapauze; Auc., Christie's, London, July 3-20, 1908, no. 117; Auc., Paris, Dec. 21, 1937, no. 5, repr. pl. 111; Private Coll., Paris; Cailleux, Paris; Purchased by the NMWA, 1989.

Exhibition History

1925

Le paysage français de Poussin à Corot, Musée du Petit-Palais, Paris, 1925 - 1925, cat. no. P. 339 (as "Les baigneuses")

1973

Autour du Néoclassicisme, Cailleux, Paris, 1973 - 1973, cat. no. 50, repr.

1980

Des monts et des eaux: paysages de 1715 á 1850, Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 23 September 1980 - 30 October 1980, Galerie Cailleux, Genève, 17 November 1980-17 January 1981, cat. no. 40, repr.

1997

Resonating Love and Life: European Art from National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, 12 April 1997 - 18 May 1997, cat. no. 10

1998

Claude Lorrain and the Ideal Landscape, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 15 September 1998 - 6 December 1998, cat. no. 117

2000

Tanka at the National Museum of Western Art: An Encounter between Poet and Art, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 25 July 2000 - 29 October 2000, cat. no. 24

2007

Gods and Nature: The Essence of European Art from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Himeji City Museum of Art, 4 November 2007 - 2 December 2007, cat. no. 15

2007

Gods and Nature: The Essence of European Art from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, 11 December 2007 - 3 February 2008, cat. no. 15

2012

Hubert Robert: Les jardins du Temps, The National Museum of Western Art, 6 March 2012 - 20 May 2012, cat. no. 102

2017

[Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 48

Bibliography

1900

Marines et paysages aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle. 2ème série, Parc-Saint-Maur, n. d. (ca.1900), pl. 8.

1926

Ingersoll-Smouse, Florence. Joseph Vernet, peintre de marine, 1714-1789: étude critique suivie d'un catalogue raisonné de son œuvre peint, avec 357 reproductions. vol. 2, Paris, Étienne Bignou 1926, no. 973, repr. pl. CXI, no. 244.

1989

Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1989 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 45, repr.

1990

Catalogue of painting acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 77-78, repr.

1992

Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 23-24 (1989-90), 1992, Takahashi, Akiya. New Acquisitions 1988-89. pp. 17-19, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions 1988-89.pp. 42-43, repr.

2006

Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 55, col. repr.

2009

Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 55, col. repr.

2013

Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 68, col. repr.