Provenance
Commissioned November 1771 by Henry, 8th Lord Arundell of Wardour [1740-1808], Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Wiltshire;[1] by descent in his family;[2] (Arundell sale, at Wardour Castle, 10 September 1952, no. 144, as _The Storm_ [paired with _The Calm_]). (Galerie Popoff, Paris), by 1957; private collection, France; (Marc Blondeau, Paris/Sotheby's, New York); purchased 17 February 2000 by NGA.
[1] The banker Henry Hoare II [1705-1785], who acted both as agent and patron for the artist, commissioned a pair of paintings on behalf of Lord Arundell. Completed and paid for by August 1772, the two paintings were _The Shipwreck_ and _Moonlight_. They remained together until shortly after the 1952 sale; the current (2001) location of _Moonlight_ is not known.
[2] The line of the Arundells of Wardour became extinct with the death of John Francis Arundell, 16th Baron Arundell of Wardour, who was killed in action during World War II on 25 September 1944.
Accession Number
2000.22.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 113.5 x 162.9 cm (44 11/16 x 64 1/8 in.) | framed: 124.8 x 172.9 x 7.6 cm (49 1/8 x 68 1/16 x 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Patrons' Permanent Fund and Chester Dale Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) was the foremost French marine painter of the 18th century, known for his dramatic seascapes that combine topographic accuracy with sublime atmospheric effects. The Shipwreck from 1772 is one of his most celebrated works, depicting a vessel foundering on a rocky coast while desperate survivors cling to wreckage and attempt to reach shore through the raging surf. The painting belongs to the tradition of the sublime—aesthetic category that valued the experience of terror and awe in the face of nature's overwhelming power—and Vernet's treatment makes the shipwreck a vehicle for the most dramatic possible demonstration of nature's destructive force.
Cultural Impact
Vernet's Shipwreck is one of the most influential marine paintings in the history of European art because it defined the visual vocabulary of the maritime disaster that would be repeated by painters throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The rocky coast, the foundering vessel, the desperate survivors, and the raging sea constitute a compositional formula that would be imitated by Turner, Aivazovsky, and every subsequent painter of maritime catastrophe. Vernet's version remains the template.
Why It Matters
The Shipwreck is Vernet defining the visual vocabulary of maritime disaster: the rocky coast, the foundering vessel, the desperate survivors, and the raging sea that would be imitated by every subsequent painter of maritime catastrophe. The painting is the template for the sublime at sea—nature's destructive power rendered with the topographic accuracy of a marine painter and the dramatic intensity of a history painter.
