Calme - A Landscape at Sunset

My interpretation of Claude-Joseph Vernet's "Calme" or better known as "A Landscape at Sunset".

This is one of two paintings originally commissioned as a pair by Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, in June or July 1772. However, concerned that the King was slow to pay, Vernet instead sold the pictures to the British officer and East India Company official Lord Clive (known as Clive of India).

This painting, originally known as ‘Calme’, was painted first. It shows an imaginary harbour as fishermen return with their catch on a tranquil summer’s evening. The golden setting sun is at the centre of the composition above the misty horizon, its light illuminating the undersides of the clouds and reflecting off the ripples on the calm sea. A ship has just arrived – it is just possible to make out the tiny figures on its mast yards furling the sails – and is being towed by two launches into the harbour.

‘Calme’ and its pair ‘Tempête’ are two of Vernet’s greatest marine paintings, and the only great pair of marine views by him in a British public collection.