Claude Joseph Vernet Essay

The Beauty of the Storm

Claude-Joseph Vernet’s oil on canvas painting titled Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm was created in 1775, and it is currently located in the European Art Galleries (18th- 19th Century North) 2nd Floor at the Dallas Museum of Art. It is a large-scale painting with overall dimensions of 64 1/2 x 103 1/4 in. (1 m 63.83 cm x 2 m 62.26 cm) and frame dimensions of 76 1/8 x 115 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (1 m 93.36 cm x 2 m 92.74 cm x 12.07 cm). Vernet creates this piece by painting elements from nature and using organic shapes in order to create atmospheric effects, weather and different moods. This piece primarily depicts a landscape with a rocky mountainous terrain and villagers scrambling to an upcoming storm.

This

painting shows Vernet’s unique style when creating naturalistic landscapes.

For example, he uses texture, color and organic forms to make the landscape look as real as possible. Most of the shapes are formed by shifts in colors and line because the canvas are two-dimensional. The viewer can observe that the painting is dominated by greys, browns, ochers, and other natural colors such as green and yellow to give the scene a more nature-like look. All the components and objects painted in this piece appear to have the same texture and color as the ones found in real life, such as rocks suggesting a rough hard texture and clouds being soft, which probably means that Vernet took in consideration real landscapes and places he might have seen in real life. While using different shades of grey, and painting dark clouds, Vernet was able to convince that a storm was approaching but he also decided to add source of light coming from the upper left corner by using a golden yellow color to create a sense of warmth, which creates a nice contrast between the light and the coldness from the overall shadows that seem to dominate the artwork, creating variety; however, the repetition of colors such as greys gave the whole piece a sense of unity and they also express the shadows of a stormy day. We

can see that the artist took in consideration scale and proportion when making this artwork. For example, the mountains in the background seem massive compared to the small buildings in the middle of the painting. Another building that seems to be a castle can also be observed on top of a mountain, but if you look closely you will be able to see small figures, humans, walking around the castle. In the foreground, the artist decided to paint more figures such as humans and some animals, to make the scene look ordinary and to make the viewer feel identified with these figures. A body of water, cascade or river, is also observed in the painting. Vernet used lines and the color white on blue green to show movement and direction of the water. Trees and rocky cliffs can also be observed to make the piece more realistic.
I believe that this painting was created to show the beauty of nature in every sense of the word but also makes the viewer feel identified with the figures in the painting since storms happens in real life and we react to it in different ways. Even though the landscape is beautiful, people might perceive different feelings from this painting at first glance. For example unhappiness or discomfort, and even pressure that eventually releases in a rush, just like the figures in the painting look like they’re in a rush because they’re trying to avoid the storm. Some people might think of storms as being destructive and violent, but when I think of storms, I prefer to think of the aftermath, because after the storm stops you learn to appreciate the pleasures of calmness, which is why I felt like I was part of the painting. The artist did an excellent job in creating this naturalistic landscape and he used the colors wisely to convey the weather in his artwork. I personally think that the overall painting is beautiful and one can imagine being transported into it just by looking at it. Definitely one of my favorite artworks at the DMA!