CHARLES-FRANÇOIS GRENIER DE LACROIX called LACROIX DE MARSEILLE
Marseille circa 1700 - 1782 Berlin
Ref: CC 228
Morning: fishermen on a rocky coast near a fortified port
Evening: a peasant couple dancing on a rocky coast near a cave below a fortress
A pair
The former signed and dated lower left: De La Croix / 1767
Oil on canvas: 18 ¾ x 25 ¾ in / 47.6 x 65.4 cm
Frame size: 26 x 32 in / 66 x 81.3 cm
Provenance:
Dr Daniel McLean McDonald (1905-1991), Isle of Man;
his estate sale, Christie’s London, 11th December 1992, lot 36;
Richard Green, London;
Dimitri Mavromatis, London;
his sale, 5th December 2007, lot 67;
Gianni Giordano Collection, Europe
Exhibited:
London, Leggatt Brothers, Paintings from the Collection of Dr DM McDonald, 16th October-6th November 1977, nos.17 and 18, illus.
Lacroix de Marseille was influenced by the paintings of Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), whom he encountered in Rome in the 1750s. Like Vernet, he often executed landscapes in pairs which evoke the atmosphere of different times of day, typically sunrises and sunsets. This pair of paintings is a fine example of his accomplished and decorative work with its clear, delicate colouring.
Lacroix may have been born in the brutal, bustling port of Marseilles, but his views are of an idealised Mediterranean, perfect souvenirs for Grand Tourists remembering its glorious light in chillier, greyer northern Europe. In Morning: fishermen on a rocky coast, fishermen pull in nets from a rowing boat while a pearlescent dawn rises over a port. To the right, rowing boats cluster round a larger, lateen-rigged vessel. Lacroix makes a repoussoir from a slender, twisting tree – a favourite motif. Behind it is the round tower of a fortification with a frieze of classical figures. Picturesque modern life coexists with Italy’s ancient Roman heritage. Much of the fascination of the country for Grand Tourists was the sense that they were walking upon the bones of the Roman Empire and were constantly reminded of a civilisation that remained the chief cultural inspiration for contemporary Europe.
The theme of ancient and modern is continued in the pair to this work, Evening: a peasant couple dancing on a rocky coast. As the sun goes down in an apricot haze, the young woman, gloriously dressed in blue and yellow, dances with castanets, nimbly partnered by her paramour in red and gold. Italian peasants were romanticised in eighteenth century art and literature for their joie de vivre, musicality and unselfconscious grace. The cave behind them is reminiscent of the rocky inlets of the southern Italian coast. Lacroix visited Naples in 1757; the fortification which towers above the dancers echoes medieval bastions such as Castel Nuovo in that city, a reminder that control of the Italian peninsula had been fought over for centuries.
Lacroix often reused motifs in his paintings, always however varying the compositions with delightful freshness. The circular tower, windswept tree and lateen-rigged fishing boat appear in a smaller work, A harbour view at dawn with fisherfolk (private collection)[1]. The dancing couple, their companions and the main elements of the landscape feature in A coastal rocky landscape at sunset with figures dancing before a cave, dated 1764, formerly in the Bobby Wills Collection[2]. While composing his paintings, Lacroix would have relied upon drawn studies made on the spot and kept in the studio for reference.
CHARLES-FRANÇOIS GRENIER DE LACROIX called
LACROIX DE MARSEILLE
Marseille circa 1700 - 1782 Berlin
Charles François Grenier de Lacroix, known as Lacroix de Marseille, established his reputation as a painter of Italianate seascapes and landscapes. He specialised in capricci embellished with figures and distinguished by a taste for fantastic architecture. Despite his success during his lifetime, comparatively little is known about him. He used a number of different signatures, signing himself Grenier de La Croix on a Port scene dated 1750 (Toledo Museum of Art, OH) and using Delacroix on an Eruption of Vesuvius of 1767.
Born in Marseille, Lacroix’s first known paintings were two pendant seascapes signed and dated 1743, entitled Italian port at sunrise and Italian port at sunset. By 1754, he had moved to Rome. He visited Naples in 1757, painting Vesuvius and the surrounding countryside. In Rome, Lacroix met Adrien Manglard (1695-1760), the celebrated sea painter from Lyon, and his pupil Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), who was to become the most important influence on Lacroix’s work. Lacroix painted seascapes, seaports, storms and sunsets which both in subject and style show his debt to Vernet. His capricci, particularly his depiction of figures, also reflect the influence of Italian artists such as Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788) and Marco Ricci (1676-1729/30).
Lacroix was in Paris by the end of the 1770s and exhibited at the Salon du Colisée in 1776. He participated in the Salon de la Correspondance in Paris in 1780 and 1782 and died in Berlin in 1782. During the eighteenth century his paintings were very popular and many were engraved by Le Veau and Le Mire.
The work of Lacroix de Marseille is represented in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Dijon Museum of Art; the Musée Ingres, Montauban; the National Museum, Stockholm; Uppark House, West Sussex; Compton Verney, Warwickshire and Culzean Castle, Scotland.
[1] Oil on canvas 10 3/8 x 12 7/8 in / 26.4 x 32.7 cm. Sotheby’s New York, 1st February 2018, lot 639.
[2] Oil on canvas 19 ¾ x 28 ½ in / 50.2 x 72.2 cm. Paired with A capriccio landscape with Tivoli, the Temple of Vesta and a waterfall. Sotheby’s London, 5th July 2005, lot 13.
