Effect of Thunder
ca. 1755–85
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 13 in. × 16 15/16 in. (33 × 43 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.1474
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
"Effect of Thunder" is a striking 18th-century engraving created around 1755–85 by Bertaud after designs by the renowned French artist Joseph Vernet. Measuring 13 × 16 15/16 inches, this print captures the raw drama of nature's fury, likely depicting a turbulent seascape or landscape where thunder unleashes its power. Vernet, a master of marine painting, was celebrated for evoking the sublime beauty and terror of storms, blending Rococo elegance with emerging Romantic sensibilities during France's Enlightenment era. As an engraving—a meticulous intaglio technique where lines are incised into a metal plate, inked, and pressed onto paper—this work exemplifies how prints democratized access to grand artistic visions. Vernet's original compositions, often commissioned for royal collections, gained wider audiences through such reproductions, influencing tastes in dramatic natural phenomena and weather effects across Europe. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (acquired via the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1953), "Effect of Thunder" invites visitors to ponder humanity's awe before nature's might—a timeless theme rendered with exquisite precision.
About the Artist
Bertaud|Joseph Vernet (French|French) · 1714 | –1789 |
French, Avignon 1714–1789 Paris|French