CHARLES-FRANÇOIS GRENIER DE LACROIX, called LACROIX DE MARSEILLE (Marseille, 1700 – Berlin, 1782) - Pair of Mediterranean views at dawn (1762)

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GRAND MARCH AUCTION OF OLD MASTERS AND COLONI...

By Templum Fine Art Auctions

Mar 25, 2026

Set Reminder 2026-03-25 10:00:00 2026-03-25 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : GRAND MARCH AUCTION OF OLD MASTERS AND COLONIAL ART https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/templum-fine-art-auctions/grand-march-auction-of-old-masters-and-colonial-art-22766
AUCTION · 25 MARCH · 3:00 PM EXHIBITION OPEN FROM 13 MARCH Templum Fine Art Auctions info@templumauctions.com

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• Lot Description
  Pair of oil paintings on canvas. Dimensions: 48.7 × 64.7 cm each. The first is signed and dated in the lower left corner “Lacroix / 1762”; the second is signed and dated in the lower right corner “De Lacroix / Rome 1762”. A certificate from René Millet is included. This remarkable pair of seascapes allows us to imagine the same voyage at two contrasting moments: the serene beginning of the journey and the subsequent outbreak of a storm. In the first composition, depicting fishermen at dawn, the sea appears calm and the sky clear, with hardly any wind, to the point that the sails have had to be lowered. In the second, on the contrary, the vessel faces a violent tempest, with raging waves and the wind pushing the ship towards some coastal reefs. This interplay of contrasts, both atmospheric and emotional, is one of the most characteristic features of Lacroix de Marseille's painting, which achieved particular renown for his seascapes conceived as pendants. In these works, he introduced a temporal and narrative dimension through the opposition between calm and agitation, dawn and storm, stillness and danger. The picturesque coexists with the sublime, and the landscape becomes a vehicle for a wide range of emotions, from serenity to awe. A great colorist, the artist also found in this genre the ideal pretext for displaying skies of infinite nuances, capable of evoking both the different hours of the day and sudden changes in the weather. Here, too, the spirit of caprice prevails, since the place depicted does not correspond to a real topography, but rather to an idealized invention in the tradition of Claude Lorrain and, later, Hubert Robert. French landscape painter Lacroix de Marseille settled in Rome between 1750 and 1763, where he discovered both classical antiquity and the great landscape tradition of the 17th century. While artists like Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin had laid the foundations of the ideal landscape with ancient architecture and expansive ...
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