France.- Vernet (After Joseph, 1714-1789) [Vues des ports de France], sixteen plates (of 18) after the series of paintings commissioned to Vernet by the Marquess of Marigny in 1753, etchings and engravings by Charles Nicolas Cochin fils (1715-1790) and Jacques Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783), each on laid paper mounted on paper support and bound into an album, platemarks approx. 530 x 745 mm. (20 7/8 x 29 3/8 in), sheets approx. 605 x 805 mm. (23 3/4 x 31 3/4 in), some occasional tears and areas of restored loss, surface dirt and handling creases, half-roan over paper-patterned boards, rubbed, folio, [circa 1760-1780].

Literature:
cf. Arlaud 243-260

⁂ Scarce. In 1753, King Louis XV commissioned Vernet to produce a series of paintings to document and promote the harbours of France. Between 1753 and 1765, Vernet travelled to ten harbours, and eventually completed 15 of an intended 24 views. The series consolidated Vernet's reputation, and from 1758 the present suite of engraved reproductions began. In addition to the fifteen plates etched after Vernet, three more plates were etched after Cochin's designs in 1776 and 1796.