Mediterranean shore with fischermen, 1770
Oil on canvas, H. 0.28 m; W. 0.41 m
Signature lower right: de Lacroix.
Provenance: Private collection, Paris.
Lacroix de Marseille, painter of landscapes and marine, is the most known for artists of Joseph Vernet’s circle. Is he the pupil of Joseph Vernet or with him the pupil of the painter Adrien Manglard in Rome?
His first known picture is dated 1743. By 1750 he settles down in Italy and his nickname becomes Della Croce. In 1759 he collaborates with Joseph Vernet to an important commission for the Duke of Parma for the castle of Colorno.
He works in Naples during around ten years and then in 1776, he is in Paris where he exhibits to the Salon du Colisée; later, in 1780 and 1782, his works are exhibited in the Salon de la Correspondance. A contemporary of the artist mentions his death in Berlin in 1782.
This painter is well-known for his sense of the colour and the composition. By the care brought to every detail and sophisticated sense of the light, these paintings are a part of works of maturity of Lacroix of Marseille.
