Claude–Joseph Vernet was one of the most famous landscape and marine painters in Europe during the second half of the 18th century. After his initial schooling in his native Avignon and in Aix–en–Provence, the 20–year–old artist traveled to Rome in 1734. He studied there for a brief time with the French–born marine painter Adrien Manglard, but quickly established his own reputation. Vernet made sketching trips in and around Rome and along the Mediterranean coast as far south as Naples, capturing scenes that provided the basic repertoire for the rest of his long career. He was soon sought after by Roman collectors, as well as by French diplomats in Italy and the many wealthy travelers from north of the Alps, especially the British making their Grand Tour. For these patrons Vernet painted views of Rome and Naples, and imaginary landscapes and coastal scenes—often in pairs or a set of four.
The Shipwreck epitomizes the type of marine subject for which Vernet was best known. It was commissioned, along with a pendant Mediterranean Coast by Moonlight (location unknown since c. 1955), by Lord Arundell in November 1771. The Shipwreck formed a dramatic contrast with the peaceful, moonlit coast scene, illustrating respectively the "sublime" (eliciting a sensation of horror in the spectator) and the "beautiful" (an agreeable and reposeful sensation), concepts that were much discussed in aesthetic discourse of the day. A ship flying a Dutch flag has foundered on a rocky seashore during a dramatic storm. Wind crashes the waves, bends a tree to breaking point, and sends clouds scudding across the sky, while a red zigzag crack of lightning illuminates a harbor town farther along the coast. Survivors from the wreck are distraught, exhausted, or just grateful to have clambered ashore. As the ship takes a final lurch against the rocks, desperate survivors slide down a rope in an attempt to reach the land. Shipwrecks were a real travel hazard in the 18th century, similar to automobile and plane crashes in our own time. Vernet painted the scene with lively brushwork, corresponding to the various effects of clouds, waves, and foam; his figures, however, were carefully and precisely rendered.
(Text by Philip Conisbee, published in the National Gallery of Art exhibition catalogue, Art for the Nation, 2000)
lower left: J. Vernet / F. 1772
Commissioned November 1771 by Henry, 8th Lord Arundell of Wardour [1740-1808], Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Wiltshire; by descent in his family; (Arundell sale, at Wardour Castle, 10 September 1952, no. 144, as The Storm [paired with The Calm]). (Galerie Popoff, Paris), by 1957; private collection, France; (Marc Blondeau, Paris/Sotheby's, New York); purchased 17 February 2000 by NGA.
- Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
- The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).
- Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and "The Life Line", Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2012.
- Conisbee, Philip. "The Shipwreck, 1772, by Claude-Joseph Vernet." In Mélanges en Hommage à Pierre Rosenberg: Peintures et dessins en France et en Italie XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles. Paris, 2001: 153-158, fig. 2.
- Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 258-259, no. 209, color repro.
- Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 92, 432-435, color repro.
- Foster, Kathleen A. "Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and 'The Life Line'." American Art Review 24, no. 6 (November-December 2012): 88, color repro.
- "Art for the Nation: The Story of the Patrons' Permanent Fund." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 53 (Fall 2015):16-17, repro.
- Baetjer, Katharine. "Jean Pillement: Shipwrecks and the Sublime." Metropolitan Museum Journal 51 (2016): 102, fig. 4.
- Yin, Steph. "How Often Does Lightning Strike? More Than Artists Figured." New York Times 167, no. 57,991 (June 12, 2018): D2, color fig.