Harbor Scene
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 8 1/8 × 10 5/8 in. (20.7 × 27 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.1549
Art Historical Context
**Harbor Scene**, an etching created around 1764 by French painter Joseph Vernet in collaboration with Austrian etcher Franz Edmund Weiro, offers a captivating glimpse into 18th-century maritime life. Vernet, renowned for his luminous harbor views and tempestuous seascapes, was a master of the Rococo style transitioning toward Neoclassicism. Commissioned by Louis XV to decorate Versailles with over a hundred marine paintings, his works celebrated France's naval prowess and the romance of the sea. Weirotter, a talented reproductive printmaker, skillfully translated Vernet's compositions into in...