Vue de Marseille, joute et fête sur l'eau, 1791
Oil on canvas.
82.50 x 120.50 cm
Provenance :
Christie's London sale, November 27, 1852 (attributed to Joseph Vernet), no. 44
Patrick Anderson Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York, 1955-1990
Mercier et Cie sale, Lille, October 24, 1999, no. 242 (with attribution)
Private collection, France
Exhibitions :
Salon de 1791, Louvre, Paris, no. 50
Dayton Museum, 1951
The Eighteen Century Woman, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York, 1981-82, reproduced in the exhibition catalog, p. 53.
Eighty Years of French Painting from Louis XVII to the Second Republic, Stair Sainty Matthiesen Gallery, New-York, 1991, no. 7.
Marines et ports méditerranéens, Monaco, February 18 - March 15, 2009 then Palais des Arts, Marseille, May 28 - September 13, 2009, reproduced in the exhibition catalog on p.21.
Bibliography :
Charles Eschard, peintre dessinateur et graveur, Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1984, cited under no. 75 (with mention of an unknown location).
Jean-François and Philippe Heim, C. Béraud, Les Salons de peinture de la Révolution Française (1789-1799), Paris, 1989, p. 202 (with mention of an unknown location).
MARSEILLE EN FÊTE
Long preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under an erroneous attribution, the painting's authorship was only re-established in the late 1990s, after the museum sold it. Prior to this, it was thought that Eschard's painting, which had been exhibited at the Salon of 1791, had been lost and listed in the Salon catalog. The mention of an "unknown location" would thus systematically accompany its entry in publications that subsequently referred to it.
When it was sold at auction for the first time in 1852, at Christies in London, it was already under a different attribution: the painting was sold to a collector as a work by Joseph Vernet, and years later, in 1955, it joined the collections of the MET. When the painting was resold in France in 1999, it finally regained its authorship.
Its author, Charles Eschard (1744-1820), was a painter, draughtsman and engraver from Caen, trained by Jean-Baptiste Descamps (1714-1791) at the Rouen School of Drawing. Approved by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Eschard also worked in Paris as a teacher at the drawing academy founded by Count de Rohan-Chabot.
At the Salon of 1791, he presented this painting in the Louvre. This view of Marseille at the end of the 18th century is exceptional and interesting for several reasons, not least because it offers a rare glimpse of the city's ramparts.
Although the medieval city had a small perimeter, the strong demographic expansion of the modern period forced the town to build new ramparts, delimiting a larger area, particularly during the reign of Louis XIV. In reality, these fortifications, decided upon by the royal authorities, served a dual purpose: on the one hand, of course, the walls erected all around the lit- toral served as protection against foreign aggression, particularly since we still have the painful memory of the sacking of the city by the Catalans, who, at the end of the 15th century, entered Marseille by sea, taking with them as their trophy (and the height of humiliation for the Marseillais) the protective chain that closed the Vieux-Port every evening. Henceforth, "All these coasts are surrounded by walls, and boats are not allowed to approach", according to a map of the bay of Marseille at the end of the 17th century, preserved in the BNF's print cabinet.
However, surrounding the city was also of interest to royalty, who were wary of the local population, which was prone to rebellion. Surrounded by walls, the territory was easier to control in the event of rebellion.
François 1er had already equipped the city with its first two military forts, which can be seen in the painting, one on the hill of Notre-Dame de la Garde, where it was built around the chapel that already stood on the promontory, and the other on the island of If. In the background, on the right, is the Frioul archipelago.
We can also see a number of mills, which were strategically located high up, mostly on the butte du Panier, to take full advantage of the wind. From the position of the remarkable buildings that already existed at that time, and thanks to the Fanal Tower, which shows us the precise location of the Old Port, we can think that this popular festival on the water took place between Pointe Saint-Lazare and Cap Pinède, in other words, on the Arenc side, in the Estaque district. This outport has a long tradition of jousting on the water.
As for the population living here, it's dense and diverse, from beggars to noblemen in wigs. Fishermen, washerwomen, musicians, dancers and drinkers, travelers too perhaps, gather on the beach for this maritime celebration.
At the time of this painting, Marseille was, along with Bordeaux, France's largest foreign trade port, and the city was experiencing strong urban growth, making up for the demographic losses of the great plague epidemic of 1720. For these reasons in particular, it was interesting for royalty to turn its gaze to this great port city, which was obviously an important source of revenue and even a veritable financial windfall.
Mixed and ebullient, lively and cheerful, such is the Marseilles crowd Eschard depicts in his painting, and it's amusing to think that, as he designates it, these characters won't have changed much over the centuries...