Seaport by Moonlight

In 1771 Madame du Barry, Louis XV's mistress, ordered four overdoors from Joseph Vernet for her new pavilion at Louveciennes, west of Paris. Each showed a time of day, and this is Night. A full moon breaks through the clouds over a harbour and lays a band of light across the water around the ships at anchor. On the quay a fire lights up a group cooking over it, and nearby a man fishes with a rod. The set went on show at the Salon of 1773. In November 1794 the paintings were seized as the property of the comte d'Artois, the executed king's brother, who had fled abroad. One of the four, Midday, had been set aside to be traded and went its own way. In 2010 this one was traced to an office in the Luxembourg Palace, home of the French Senate.