The Outer Harbor of Brest | Henri Joseph van Blarenberghe | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed and dated (lower left): van Blarenberghe f. 1773

Gallery LabelBetween 1754 and 1765, in fulfillment of a commission from Louis XV, Joseph Vernet completed a series of fifteen views of French ports. He abandoned the project before painting Brest, a major Breton port that had been rebuilt in the 1740s. When later, the Secretary of State for the Navy was anxious to present evidence of the building works at Brest to the king, he engaged Louis Nicolas van Blarenberghe. Between January 18 and April 2, 1773 six large gouaches documenting the interior and exterior of the port and village were prepared jointly by Louis Nicolas and his son Henri Joseph. Finished views in oils and gouache were painted subsequently and animated with lively staffage. Both of the Van Blarenberghes specialized in miniatures. As Louis Nicolas is not known to have worked in oils at all, the present oil painting is attributed to the younger artist.

NotesBetween 1754 and 1765 Joseph Vernet completed fifteen paintings in fulfillment of a royal commission, a series of views of the ports of France. Vernet abandoned the project, however, before taking on the views of Brest. This port, a major naval station, had been rebuilt with government support after fires in 1742 and 1744 and the Secretary of State for the Navy, Bourgeois de Boyne, was eager to present the King with evidence of progress made. He hired Louis Nicolas van Blarenberghe, who asked to have his son Henri Joseph accompany him to assist him with the project; the two had been working in close collaboration from 1769 and would continue to do so until 1778. They jointly produced six watercolor/gouache studies of the port of Brest between January 18 and April 2, 1773, a foundation for the commission received from de Boyne to "create for the Department of the Navy all the views of the interior and of the exterior of the port and village of Brest." According to Ref. Maillet-Chassagne and Château-Thierry 2004, the six direct studies of Brest (now Louvre, Paris) are the basis for ten finished views of the port (seven gouaches and three oil paintings), including our picture. The topographical studies in the Louvre were supplemented by other studies made "sur le vif" of figures animating the banks of the seaport.

In a letter of December 30, 1774, from Louis Nicolas to Antoine de Sartine, who replaced de Boyne as Secretary of State for the Navy, four finished paintings are mentioned, three by Louis Nicolas and one by Henri Joseph. Two of these had already been delivered, including the one by Henri Joseph made for "le cabinet de Votre Grandeur à Versailles." The latter could be the MMA painting but is more likely to be the very large oil painting of the port (125 x 193 cm) dated 1774, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest.

It is generally assumed that the oil paintings of the harbor produced after the Van Blarenberghes' return, ours and the large picture in Brest, are the work of Henri Joseph, as Louis Nicolas is not believed to have practiced oil painting. A third oil painting representing the harbor appears in sales in Angers (December 16, 1997) and Paris (May 14, 2001) and is catalogued in Ref. Maillet-Chassagne and Château-Thierry 2004 as no. 3-811-14ter; it has been heavily retouched. The numerous gouache paintings of the harbor appear to be the work of Louis Nicolas, including a variant of our painting in gouache (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest), signed and dated van Blarenberghe 1776.

Our picture follows the 1773 Louvre study that bears the inscription, "Tableau du port de Brest pris de la mâture (L'avant-port de Brest)." "La mâture," or the masting machine, was a contrivance that lowered a mast timber into a ship through holes cut in each deck and then secured it to the keel.

Provenance[probably Lebrun, Paris, until 1806; probably his sale, Lebrun, Paris, September 29, 1806, no. 158, "Blaremberg. La Vue intérieure du Port de Brest, oû l'on remarque différens bâtimens de guerre, dans l'un desquels se fait un embarquement de troupes. Grand nombre de personnages sont sur les quais, & dans le fond s'offre des vaisseaux en construction . . . . — Hauteur 27 pouces & demi, largeur 39 pouces & demi (29.2 x 42 in.)," for Fr 154 to ?Richard]; [Baur, Paris, in 1864]; Vincent Astor, New York (bought in Brest; 1920s–d. 1959); Mrs. Vincent Astor, New York (1959–78)

Exhibition History

Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. "Landscape Painting in the East and West," April 19–June 1, 1986, no. 8.

Kobe City Museum. "Landscape Painting in the East and West," June 7–July 13, 1986, no. 8.

References

A[uguste]. Jal. Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire: errata et supplément pour tous les dictionnaires historiques d'après des documents authentiques inédits. 2nd ed. Paris, 1872, p. 226, publishes the 1774 letter sent by [Louis Nicolas] van Blarenberghe to "Monseigneur de Sartine" [see Notes]; elsewhere in his notice, describes in great detail a picture that is unquestionably the MMA work, noting that in 1864 it belonged to Baur, an antique dealer; ascribes the picture with Baur to Blarenberghe père [Louis Nicolas], whom he misnames Henri Désiré.

Eric M. Zafran. The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, p. 140, no. 68, ill. p. 132 (color).

Monique Maillet. Letter to Katharine Baetjer. January 26, 1998, identifies it with the picture mentioned as being in the "Dépot de la marine" in the 1774 letter of Louis Nicolas to Sartine [see Ref. Jal 1872], and believes our picture can also be identified with the work with Baur in 1864 described in detail elsewhere in the same notice.

Monique Maillet-Chassagne. Une dynastie de peintres lillois, les Van Blarenberghe. Paris, 2001, pp. 194–95, colorpl. XXVI–XXVII, attributes it to Henri Joseph van Blarenberghe, calling it much closer to the study in the Louvre, which she also ascribes to Henri Joseph, than to a gouache of the same scene (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest), which she gives to Louis Nicolas.

Monique Maillet-Chassagne and Irène de Château-Thierry. Catalogue raisonné des œuvres des Van Blarenberghe (1680–1826). Lille, 2004, pp. 57, 296, 343, 347, 350–51, no. 3-811-13bis, ill., discuss a group of ten finished paintings representing the port of Brest, including the present work, under the heading "L'atelier de Louis-Nicolas et Henri-Joseph," but note that no oils are attributable to Louis-Nicolas; identify the group of six watercolor/gouache studies (Louvre, Paris) made by Louis-Nicolas with the assistance of his son as the basis for these finished views (seven gouaches and three oil paintings); use the legends inscribed on the related studies to identify the views, calling our picture and its replicas "Tableau du port de Brest pris de la mâture [masting machine] (L'avant-port de Brest)"; believe it was probably another picture, rather than ours, that was made for the "Dépôt de la Marine" [see Ref. Maillet 1998]; are certain that the MMA picture appeared in the Lebrun sale and read the buyer's name as "Richard".

Jean-François Méjanès in Les Van Blarenberghe, des reporters du XVIIIe siècle. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Ghent, 2006, pp. 67, 69–71, 76, fig. 4 (color), attributes our picture to Henri-Joseph and erroneously refers to pl. 61 ( Louvre, Paris) as the gouache of the same view "apparently by Louis-Nicolas," dated 1776 (it is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest); mentions our painting, however, in his discussion of the gouache in Brest, no. 62, and ascribes the latter without qualification to Louis-Nicolas; assumes that Louis Nicolas, like Vernet in 1753, was asked to produce two finished paintings of the Harbor at Brest, but notes that four are mentioned in Louis Nicolas's letter of 1774 to M. de Sartine, apparently one oil and three gouaches; wonders if the oil painting described as made for "le dépot de la marine qui est dans le cabinet de Votre Grandeur (Sartines) à Versailles" could be ours.

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