Joseph Vernet (French,Avignon 1714-1789 Paris),A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas,1773,oil on canvas
This painting of a dramatic storm and its pendant originally belonged to the celebrated Englishman Clive of India,who purchased them directly from the artist in 1773.Sophisticated viewers would have recognized that its turbulent composition of boats caught in power waves breaking against the rocky coasts contrasts sharply with the calm of its companion painting.Such charged compositions were inspired in part by the landscapes of Salvator Rosa,a Neapolitan painter of the seventeenth century,whose paintings were especially appreciated by British collectors.Landscapes such as this had a strong influence on contemporary scenography and theatrical stage effects,and they also reflect science's interest in studying such awe-inspiring natural occurrences as thunder and lightning.The experiments of the American Benjamin Franklin,who made the identification of lightning with electricity in the early 1750s,were well known in Britain at the time.
Joseph Vernet (French,Avignon 1714-1789 Paris),A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas,1773,oil on canvas
This painting of a dramatic storm and its pendant originally belonged to the celebrated Englishman Clive of India,who purchased them directly from the artist in 1773.Sophisticated viewers would have recognized that its turbulent composition of boats caught in power waves breaking against the rocky coasts contrasts sharply with the calm of its companion painting.Such charged compositions were inspired in part by the landscapes of Salvator Rosa,a Neapolitan painter of the seventeenth century,whose paintings were especially appreciated by British collectors.Landscapes such as this had a strong influence on contemporary scenography and theatrical stage effects,and they also reflect science's interest in studying such awe-inspiring natural occurrences as thunder and lightning.The experiments of the American Benjamin Franklin,who made the identification of lightning with electricity in the early 1750s,were well known in Britain at the time.