A River with Fishermen
Artist: Claude-Joseph Vernet (French, 1714 - 1789)
Original Dimensions: 23 1/4" x 29 1/4"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (1751) "On the banks of a wide meandering river, men and women are catching fish. Vernet has used the brightly lit woman in red and the jutting tree as devices to draw our eye into the composition. A man with a rod and a basket of fish sits next to the river with his back to a large mossy rock. His dog has been alerted to something in the water, but the fishing line is slack – perhaps the fisherman is just about to get a bite. Vernet reused the temple-like building in the middle ground, with its echoes of the Pantheon in Rome, in several of his other paintings. The perspective is enhanced by the zigzag of the river between the rocky banks (resembling stage scenery) and also by the way that the landscape becomes paler as it recedes into the distance. Vernet’s idealised vision of the Italianate landscape continues the classical landscape tradition of Claude and Poussin." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

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