Joseph Vernet

In 1753 the French crown gave Claude-Joseph Vernet an enormous job, to travel the coast of France and paint its major ports, one big canvas after another, as a record of the kingdom's sea power. He spent over a decade at it and finished 15 of the planned series before the money and patience ran out.

Vernet had learned his trade in Italy, where he became the painter of the sea for wealthy Grand Tourists. He is best known for two moods, the calm golden harbour at dusk and the shipwreck, with tiny figures clawing up a rock while the surf breaks over them. A story, almost certainly invented, has him lashed to a mast in a gale to study the waves firsthand.

His grandson Horace Vernet became a famous battle painter, making three generations of the family in the trade. The Ports of France canvases still hang together in the Louvre.