K.-J. Verne (1714-1789) and the Landscape Painting in the Italian Art Scene

Among the representatives of the French artistic community in the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries, it became established tradition to complete one's education with a trip to Italy. The Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture sent its scholars to Rome, while French patrons could send young painters to the Eternal City at their own expense, which was especially relevant for provincial masters. Such was the case for the Provençal landscape painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789). However, he did not limit himself to the traditional educational voyage and spent nineteen years in Italy. The subject of this study is Vernet's work in relation to the characteristics of the development of the landscape genre in the Italian artistic environment. This includes his apprenticeship with masters living in Rome, his impressions from the works of past painters, and the professional environment of contemporary masters. Of course, the international nature of this environment is taken into account: the formation of the landscape genre in Italy was influenced not only by local, but primarily by French and also Flemish masters. The methodology of the research involves a combination of various methods used in art history and a sociological approach relevant to modern science. Although there are some studies in foreign scholarship dedicated to Vernet's time in Italy, they are not comprehensive. In the Russian-language academic space, works on Vernet's art in general are extremely rare, and regarding the Italian period, it remains almost completely overlooked by domestic researchers. This determines the relevance of this article, which is conceived as part of a two-part cycle that thoroughly investigates Vernet's stay and activities in Italy. The presented section examines for the first time in Russian how Vernet's dialogue was built with his predecessors and contemporaries, how professional experience was accumulated both in purely artistic and practical terms through familiarity with past works and personal communication with colleagues. The article reveals how Vernet's creative manner and career developed, as it was in Italy that his genre preferences were fully formed, his specialization in marine landscapes took shape, an individual style was established, and a circle of favored techniques and subjects was developed.

art of Italy, painting of the 17th century, painting of the 18th century, landscape painting, marine landscape, art education, educational journeys, artistic connections, artistic life, exhibition activities