A Mediterranean Seaport

Artist Charles François Lacroix (French, died 1782)

Place of OriginRome, Italy

Date1750

DimensionsH: 37 1/4 in. (94.6 cm); W: 65 3/4 in. (164.5 cm)

MediumOil on canvas.

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1956.64

Not on View

Label TextWith a taste for fantastic architectural settings and for ambitious and descriptive compositions, Lacroix de Marseille specialized in landscapes and port scenes. Here he presents an imaginary view of a harbor town at sunset, though given the predominance of French flags on the ships, it is perhaps based on Marseilles. The harbor features a classical ruined temple, a lighthouse based on that of Naples, and a mixture of the classes—from wealthy tourists in their fashionable finery to dock laborers and fishermen to robed, pipe-smoking Ottoman Turks. Little is known about Lacroix, whose earliest known work is dated 1743. Presumably born at Marseilles, France, he was in Rome by 1750 (the place and the year that he painted this canvas) and lived in Italy for an extended period, where he worked for Italian and also French patrons. Toledo’s A Mediterranean Seaport is widely considered to be one of his masterworks.Published ReferencesGalerie Heim, Tableaux de maitres anciens, Paris, 1956, in no. 16 (painting dated 1743).

Davies, M., National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd ed., London, 1957, p. 218, no. 1.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, "French Art (1600-1800)," vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, p. 86, repr. (det. col. on front cover).

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, Oct.-Dec. 1961," Art Quarterly, vol. XXIV, no. 1, Spring 1962, p. 96.

Connaissance, no. 125, July 1962, pp. 44-45, repr., appendix, p. 111.

Lucie-Smith, Edward, A Concise History of French Painting, London, 1971, p. 148, 150, repr. fig. 144.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 89, pl. 208.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, European Masters of the Eighteenth Century, 1954, no. 334 (with inaccurate bibliographic reference).

London, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no. 358, fig. 202.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Age of Louis XV, 1975, no. 51, pl. 77 (cat. by P. Rosenberg).