A capriccio of a Mediterranean port with a lighthouse and an anchored ship, women and merchants in the foreground

Lacroix de Marseille painted this serene view of a Mediterranean port late in his career while he was living in France following his return from Italy. The bustling vista in the foreground is typical of the artist’s paintings: fisherman pull in their nets and unload boats while other men and women converse, lounging along the bay. In the background, Lacroix juxtaposes a lighthouse, a fortified city and other man-made structures with a majestic, sweeping cliff, thereby elegantly confronting artifice with nature. Sunrays gently penetrate the overcast sky, illuminating the entire scene with golden-red highlights.

Lacroix enjoyed great popularity among patrons both in Italy and France, yet surprisingly little is known about his life. He is thought to have been born in Marseille circa 1700, and is documented in Rome in 1750, when he encountered the Marquis de Vandières, who was travelling with Germain Soufflot and Charles-Nicolas Cochin. Lacroix may have traveled to Rome with Vernet, as they were working there side by side in 1751, when Lacroix executed precise copies of four works by Vernet, all of which are now at Uppark, Sussex. When the latter returned to France in 1753, Lacroix remained in Italy for at least another decade, travelling to Naples, where he is recorded in 1757. By 1776, though, he was back in his native France and, according to, the eighteenth-century critic and historian, Pahin de la Blancherie, died in Berlin in 1782.