Port Scene (fragment)
Aubusson
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1765 - circa 1790
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm
Measurements
1870 x 1900 mm
Place of origin
Aubusson
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1247023
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm, Port Scene (fragment) from a set of five Port Scenes, Aubusson, after a design by Claude Joseph Vernet, c. 1760-1780. Two figures in Oriental dress stand by a sea shore, one of them holding a small boy by the hand. There are two trees on the right and buildings on the far side of the water. The tapestry is almost square but the upper half is covered by beige canvas. There are no borders and the tapestry has been cut from a larger piece.
Full description
This ‘Port Scene’ may once have been joined to another fragment at Polesden Lacey, a ‘Quayside Scene (fragment)’ kept in storage (not yet recorded on database). A complete tapestry including both scenes was in the collection of French and Company in the early twentieth century (Getty Photo Archive no. 0243230). The five tapestry fragments with ‘Port Scenes’ at Polesden Lacey are all cut down from larger tapestries. The series they belong to enjoyed considerable popularity in the late eighteenth century, and at least thirteen different designs of ports are known. The designs were inspired by prints after the painter Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) and his associate Charles François de la Croix (c. 1700-1782) (de Reyniès 2010, pp. 214-5). Vernet specialised in views of real and imagined seascapes and ports, often in exotic locations. The subjects chosen for the tapestry series range from his views of the Ports of France to views in Italy and generic scenes of sailors and fishermen. The ‘Port Scenes’ tapestries tend to include figures in Oriental dress, reflecting Vernet's romantic association of the quayside with voyages to distant lands. The tapestries were made in the French town of Aubusson in the late eighteenth century. Surviving tapestries from the series vary considerably in quality suggesting that a number of different Aubusson workshops wove the designs, and examples have surfaced with four different signatures. The set was probably in production from the mid 1760s until the end of the eighteenth century. Some examples are dated 1776 and 1777. A list of related tapestries can be found in De Reyniès 2010, pp. 214-5. Further examples include a tapestry dated 1777 was sold by Parke-Bernet, New York, 19 March 1949, lot 736, and a pair of fragments from the series sold at Christie’s, Paris, 22 April 2004, lot 645. At least seven different ‘Port Scenes’ passed through the New York dealers French and Company in the early twentieth century (Getty Photo Archive, nos. 0243243, 0243234, 0243236, 0243242, 0243246, 0184458). (Helen Wyld, 2012)
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, the Anderson Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Aubusson, workshop after Claude-Joseph Vernet (Avignon 1714 – Paris 1789) , designer
References
Chevalier, Chevalier and Bertrand, 1988: Dominique Chevalier, Pierre Chevalier and Pascal-François Bertrand, Les Tapisseries d'Aubusson et de Felletin 1457-1791, Paris 1988 de Reyniès, 2010: Nicole de Reyniès, 'The French Tapestries', in Guy Delmarcel, Nicole de Reyniès and Wendy Hefford, The Toms Collection Tapestries of the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Zürich 2010, pp. 159-231