Seascape With Fishermen - Henri Place (1812 - 1860)

Painting, oil on canvas,  measuring 102 x 142 cm (canvas only) and 115 x 158 cm (with frame) depicting a landscape with fishermen by the painter Henri Place (Paris 1812–1860), signed and dated Place 1852.

The composition is very versatile and intelligently calibrated in terms of colour, especially in the continuous contrasts between the very light and slightly darker parts, which reveal the artist's extraordinary versatility, thanks both to his classical education, acquired through studying the great masters by copying plaster models and prints, and to his unbridled passion for music, which made everything faster, more colourful and more ethereal, as can be seen from the strong colouristic impact on the canvas through a clear preference for drawing, where both the richness of detail and a very methodical and rational arrangement of each individual character or object emerge.

This canvas shows us how the painter made his own the luminism typical of the great Venetian artists, which he was able to study and rearrange in a completely personal way. This is a painting from the painter's mature period, in which he pours his scenographic skills into constructing a skilful orchestration where the clear and harmonised colour range is highlighted by the light.