3-002-413 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Landscape with Waterfall and Figures, 1768. At the age of twenty Vernet left his native Avignon for a lengthy stay in Rome where he devloped a style of idealized landscape painting derived from the 17th-century classical traditions of Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa. Not until 1762 did he settle in Paris, metting with success there painting marine scenes and "picturesque" views that recalled his Italian sojourn as well as reflected a debt to Dutch landscape painting. His work was admired by wide international clientele. Scenes with cascades of waterfalls loosely based on the famous Italian sites of Tivoli and Terni were painted by Vernet throughout his career, and several are recorded for the year 1768.