Charles François Grenier de Lacroix, called Lacroix de Marseille

(Marseilles circa 1700–1782 Berlin)
A nocturnal view of Mount Vesuvius erupting,
signed and indistinctly dated lower left: De/Lacroi/Rom/176.,
oil on canvas, 46 x 74 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 25 January 2001, lot 215;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
Les Antiquaires avec le Livre rare et la Joaillerie au Grand Palais, XVI Biennale Internationale, 18 septembre – 4 octobre 1992, Paris 1992, p. 97, fig. 14

The present signed and dated painting is a significant work by the French artist Charles François Grenier de Lacroix, called Lacroix de Marseille. It represents the nocturnal view of a seaport, illuminated by the soft light of the moon, and by the warm light of the erupting volcano recognisable in the background as Mount Vesuvius. In the foreground, a group of fishermen push a boat into the sea, which is traversed by sailboats in the distance; on the left an imposing lighthouse dominates the scene. This image that apparently represents a real landscape punctuated by the distinctive volcano, becomes, under the brush of Lacroix de Marseille, a dream like ideal view, instilled with a ‘sublime’ atmosphere, thanks also to the depth of colour that permeates the entire composition. Such an ambience is an example of the painter’s celebrated production, and especially his nocturnes, such as for example the Marina in the Musée Magnin in Dijon, or the canvas representing the Eruption of Vesuvius in the Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.

The details of Lacroix de Marseille’s life are still in part as yet to be discovered. He was born at Marseille at the beginning of the eighteenth century, while he is documented as living in Rome, where he remained for a long time, from 1750. His first dated work corresponds with this year. In Rome, he was probably a pupil of Joseph Vernet, after whom he copied four marine landscapes conserved at Uppark House, West Sussex, fully assimilating the master’s style. It is likely that after 1753, the year Vernet returned to France, Lacroix de Marseille evolved a more autonomous and mature pictorial language, compared to that of his first works executed under the influx of his master, while his choice of subjects nevertheless remained indebted to those of Vernet’s art.

Indeed, during the years he spent in Italy, Lacroix de Marseille concentrated on landscape painting, focusing on the countryside of the Campagna Romana, its towns, and the Italian coastline, creating images in which real locations are often re-set within highly captivating ideal or fantasy views. The painter remained in Italy at least into the 1760s, the period to which the present painting belongs, after which he settled in Paris where he exhibited in various Salons during the 1770s.