''Four Times of the Day'' is a series of four paintings depicting four times of the day: ''Morning'', ''Midday'', ''Evening'', and ''Night'' by the French

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

Claude Joseph Vernet Claude-Joseph Vernet (14 August 17143 December 1789) was a French painter. His son, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, was also a painter. Life and work Vernet was born in Avignon. When only fourteen years of age he aided his father, Antoine Vernet ...

(1714–1789). They were painted in 1757 in Paris, and are held by the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The paintings consist of four separate scenes depicting morning, midday, evening and night, a series created by several artists of the era including Vernet and

Philip James de Loutherbourg Philip James de Loutherbourg RA (31 October 174011 March 1812), whose name is sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born Brit ...

Artis

Claude Joseph Vernet was considered the leading French artist of his time in his genre, marine art and

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

. He came from a family of

French painters The following is a chronological list of French artists working in visual or plastic media (plus, for some artists of the 20th century, performance art). For alphabetical lists, see the various subcategories of French artists. See other article ...

: he was the son of a decorative painter, and his son Antoine-Charles-Horace Vernet,

Carle Vernet Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, better known as Carle Vernet (14 August 175827 November 1836), was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet and the father of Horace Vernet. Biography Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age o ...

(1758–1836), and his grandson

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French Painting, painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalism, Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another ...

(1789–1863) were known as military painters. Vernet lived in Italy for 20 years, 1734 to 1753, where he had an atelier in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. His style was influenced by the Italian 17th-century painters

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

and

Salvator Rosa Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th ...

. His landscapes and especially seascapes were celebrated for their romantic qualities. Upon his return to France, a series of marine paintings were commissioned from him around 1753 by the French king

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

. This was to depict a series of

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

s, of which 15 paintings were executed. The project lasted for about 10 years, and until 1765 he traveled around France painting seascapes, eventually abandoning the project unfinished.

Paintings

In the series of four paintings, the first depiction is entitled ''Morning''. The painting shows a misty morning scene with

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...

with their boat. The second, entitled ''Midday'' depicts a sudden, unexpected

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

. The painting ''Evening'' shows women bathing and washing their clothes. The final scene shows a rocky

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

, with fishermen drying their nets while others are gathered round a fire. The scenes depicted in the paintings were Vernet's favourite scenes that he painted in different settings throughout his career. File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - The four times of day- Morning - Google Art Project.jpg, The four times of day: Morning File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - The four times of day- Midday - Google Art Project.jpg, The four times of day: Midday File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - The four times of day- Evening - Google Art Project.jpg, The four times of day: Evening File:Claude-Joseph Vernet - The four times of day- Night - Google Art Project.jpg, The four times of day: Night

Notes

References

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External links

Poetry inspired by the artist's works

Works
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219090919/http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=779 , date=19 February 2015 1757 paintings Bathing in art Collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia Paintings by Claude-Joseph Vernet Maritime paintings Moon in art Painting series

Artis

Paintings

See also

Notes

References

External links