Fire in the Port
Medium
Gouache, over traces of graphite, on cream laid paper, edge mounted on board
Dimensions
33.4 × 45 cm (13 3/16 × 17 3/4 in.)
Classification
gouache
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
20601
Art Historical Context
Behold the dramatic intensity of *Fire in the Port* (1788), a gouache masterpiece by French artist Louis-Gabriel Moreau. Capturing a chaotic nighttime blaze engulfing a bustling harbor, this work exemplifies Moreau's specialty in maritime scenes filled with peril and human drama. Created on the eve of the French Revolution, it reflects the era's fascination with spectacle and disaster, evoking the precariousness of 18th-century port life where wooden ships and crowded wharves were tinderboxes for calamity. Rendered in gouache—a vibrant, opaque watercolor—over faint graphite underdrawings on c...
About the Artist
Louis Gabriel Moreau · 1740–1806
Comment on works: Landscapes; Views of parkland; Ruins; Views of Paris; Ceremonial scenes