PHILIP JAMES DE LOUTHERBOURG (FRENCH 1740-1812)A MISTRAL, OR A SEA BREEZE ON A COOL DAY; STORM CAUSED BY THE SOUTHERLY WINDOil on canvas, a pairEach 60.5 x 82.5cm (23? x 32?in.)Provenance: Cabinet of the Duc de Piquigny, 1769Gerald F. Annesley, Castlewellan, County DownLiterature: D. Diderot, Héros et martyrs - Salons de 1769, 1771, 1775, 1781, Pensées détachées sur la peinture, la sculpture, l'architecture, et la poésie, Paris, 1995, p. 75L'Année littéraire, 1769, vol. V, lettre XIII, p. 304M. Rapha?l, Lettre sur les peintures, gravures et sculptures qui ont été exposées cette année au Louvre, 1769, p. 17E. Dacier, Catalogue de ventes et livrets de salons, illustré par Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, 1901-1921, vol. II, p. 79O. Lefeuvre, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg 1740-1812, Paris, 2012, n. 73 and M. 187, p. 212, 338Exhibited: Paris, Salon de 1769, n. 99, 100Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, Pictures from Ulster Homes, 10th May - 15 July 1961Related works:Sketch by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin on his copy of the Salon of 1769 catalogue, Paris, BnF.The two works belong to a series of seascapes and landscapes commissioned or purchased by the Duke of Piquigny. The style and composition of the paintings relate to de Loutherbourg's French period around 1768-1770, and their format corresponds to that of the numerous seascapes exhibited by the artist in 1769.A visual testimony of the paintings exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1769 is provided by the surviving sketches by the artist Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in his personal copy of the catalogue.Furthermore, one of the pictures entirely fits the description given by M. Rapha?l in his Letter on the Paintings, Engravings and Sculptures that were exhibited this year at the Louvre, when describing de Loutherbourg's pictures exhibited in the Salon de Paris in 1769:His comrade [Vernet's comrade, i.e. de Loutherbourg], I dare say his equal, has things just as unique: his waters have a transparency, a crystalline finish; there is warmth in the composition of his storms, danger is pressing, and it is well expressed on the distressed faces of the figures in the painting. I except only one... It is a longboat braving the greatest risks in a sudden squall... Fishermen are on the shore showing the concern they feel for their comrades and their desire to go to their aid. Nearby are two Orientals, I suppose from their dress and long beards, who watch all this commotion with seriousness, a 'flegme', a 'Spanish gravity'; I was not satisfied with this somewhat unnatural trait in these two gentlemen, and two others no less calm who are on the other side on a rock, and who take no more part than they in the catastrophe threatening this longboat.
Oil on canvas, a pair

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