3412 - LACROIX DE MARSEILLE, CHARLES FRANÇOIS DE (probably Marseille, c. 1700 – 1779/82, Berlin) *: “Fishermen at Sunrise” and “Storm.” Pairs

LACROIX DE MARSEILLE, CHARLES FRANÇOIS DE (probably Marseille, c. 1700 – 1779/82, Berlin) *: “Fishermen at Sunrise” and “Storm.” Pairs Oil on canvas Each signed and dated 1762 in the lower left and lower right, respectively Each 49x65 cm, framed * The hammer price is also subject to VAT. - Provenance: Anonymous sale at the Palais des Consuls, Rouen, December 1, 1971, Lot No. 372; private collection, France; Tajan auction house, Paris, June 12, 1995, Lot No. 98; private collection, France; Sotheby’s, Paris, June 15, 2021, Lot No. 47; private collection, Switzerland. Appraisal: René Millet, Paris, July 9, 2019. Lacroix de Marseille was one of the leading French landscape painters of the 18th century. During his stay in Rome from 1750 to 1763, he immersed himself in antiquity and the great tradition of Italian landscape painting, shaped by Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Under the influence of Claude-Joseph Vernet, whom he had met in Rome in 1751, Lacroix developed a distinctive, poetic visual language: He replaced the classical, strictly composed harbor vedute with a freer, idyllic, and idealized depiction of the harbor scene as a self-contained cosmos. The two works on display here were conceived by Lacroix de Marseille as a pair and tell the story of a dramatic sea voyage. On the left side of the painting, where the wind is still and the waves are calm, the ship is sailing out of the harbor, while on the right, a raging storm seems to foreshadow the end of the journey. Foaming waves, lashing wind, and a ship dangerously close to the rocks combine to create a sense of foreboding that stands in stark contrast to the first painting. Such a temporal and emotional contrast in the juxtaposition of the two paintings is just as characteristic of Lacroix de Marseille’s visual compositions as the extremely nuanced color palette, which was employed in the lighting and the depiction of the two distinct weather conditions. Auction date and time: November 6, 2026, 2:00 p.m.