A River with Fishermen is a 1751 landscape painting by the French artist Claude-Joseph Vernet.Wine p.621Preti p.121 It depicts an idealised Italian landscape, where groups of men and women are shown fishing in a broad, tranquil river. The building on the right appears to be inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, while a hilltop village with a tower can be seen in the distance.National Gallery, London
Vernet settled in Italy for a number of years before returning to France to produce his Views of the Ports of France, a series of pictures for Louis XV. It was displayed at the Salon of 1751 at the Louvre with a pendant piece showing a sunrise. The painting was acquired by the art collector John Henderson who in 1879 bequeathed it to the National Gallery, in London.National Gallery, London
References
Bibliography Preti, Monica (ed.) Delicious Decadence ?The Rediscovery of French Eighteenth-Century Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Routledge, 2017. Wine, Humphrey. The Eighteenth Century French Paintings. National Gallery Company, 2018.