View of the Bay of Naples

In the lower right corner Vernet signed this view of the Bay of Naples with his name, the word Romae and the year 1748. He painted it in Rome, then, days of travel away from the shore he shows. He had lived there since 1734, working for French and foreign patrons.

One of them was the abbé de Canillac, a churchman who handled France's affairs in Rome until 1748. In 1742 he ordered two pictures from Vernet, and the Louvre thinks they may be this canvas and its companion, a view of Naples with Vesuvius.

The city stretches along the curve of the water with the hill above it, and in front lies a busy waterfront. A wind-bent tree stands in the middle, fishermen haul their boats ashore, smoke drifts up from a fire, and on the right, under a massive old fort, gentlemen in tricorns talk with a lady in white while a dog runs ahead of them.