Lot 2122 D α

Although Charles-François Grenier de Lacroix was one of the leading landscape painters in 18th century France, whose works were already in great demand throughout his lifetime among both French and Italian collectors, we know very little about his life. We owe the first documentary evidence to the Marquis de Vandières, who met the artist in Rome in 1750. In 1757 we find Lacroix in Naples, in 1759 again in Rome, before he returned to France at a later date, where he is documented in 1776 and 1780. The greatest influence on his art was Claude-Joseph Vernet, with whom he probably also collaborated.
For the motif of the present landscape with fishermen and a castle on a hill, Lacroix de Marseille was probably inspired by the famous Fontaine-de-Vaucluse in his Provençal homeland, the source of the Sorgue, which issues from a high rock face.