2-745-955 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Waterfalls at Tivoli, 1737. Likely Vernet’s first major work during his study in Rome, this landscape demonstrates his signature style. He preferred and is best known for marine subjects; so water, unsurprisingly, is central in this painting. Vernet drew on both Italian and French landscape traditions for inspiration; he synthesized the dramatic, rugged Italian style with the calmer pastoral scene more typical of French landscapes. Vernet exhibited his work with great success in Paris and became the predominant French landscape painter of the 18th century.