Ship Leaving The Bay At Sunrise French Seascape 18th Century Rococo Oil Painting

Attributed Charles François Grenier de Lacroix or Charles - François Lacroix de Marseille (1700 - 1782) as signed lower left on the stone “Lacroix”. The scene of the departure of nobles on a ship, somewhere among the Mediterranean landscapes at sunrise. Lacroix's sense of color and attention to detail are particularly impressive: the sea is calm, the sun is rising and as a soft pink hue begins to emerge in the clouds, the morning haze has not yet cleared and the air is clear and clean, large ship anchored in the bay awaits its passengers... In the foreground, servants fuss around their masters politely and carefully seating them in boats. Many elements and details of this painting are recognizable from most paintings by Lacroix's and Vernet's: harbour at sunrise, this was a theme, inherited from Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714 - 1789), triumphal arch at the left is a motif that recurs in the artist's oeuvre, (for example artist works sold at: Christie's or Sotheby's). Antique oil painting on canvas, signed, second half of 18th century.
Size app.: 55 cm x 97.5 cm (roughly 21.7 x 38.4 in). Very good condition, craquelure, unframed, well conserved, retouches over repaired tears, edge of canvas was relined. Please study high-res pictures for cosmetic condition! In person actual painting may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Weight of app. 2 kg is going to measure some 5 kg volume weight packed for shipment.
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 Dijon Museum of Art and the National Museum, Stockholm.