GALLERY CORNER

HAWORTH Art Gallery – The Tempest goes to Marseille.

This week’s Gallery Corner has been written by Gallery deputy manager and curator, Gillian Berry, about her trip to Marseille to oversee the hanging of the Haworth’s Vernet painting, ‘The Tempest’. TWO weeks ago I travelled to Marseille, not to watch the football but to oversee the loan of The Tempest, a painting by Claude Joseph Vernet.

In March 2015 the Musee des Beaux Arts applied to loan the painting from Haworth Art Gallery and just over a year later after arranging removal, transport and insurances the painting arrived in Marseille. Once there it was my job to ensure the painting had suffered no damage or distress on its journey from Accrington, was suitable to be put on display, and that it would be looked after until its return to the Haworth.

Hanging in pride of place, The Tempest depicts a storm off the French coast featuring treacherous weather causing a shipwreck and a dilemma as to whether another will be caused.

Lightning can be seen dramatically cutting across the sky towards the unlit lighthouse and figures are seen frantically trying to save the lives of the crew or watching the outcome of the storm. The scene features calanques, or rocky inlets. Marseille is sited in the National Park of Calanques and even on a beautifully sunny day they make you aware of how dangerous they can be.

The painting has been loaned for the ‘Marseille in the Eighteenth Century: the Years of the Academy 1753-1793’ exhibition, which celebrates a new generation of local artists inspired by Vernet’s royal commission in 1753 to paint a series of canvases representing the ports of France.

The Tempest forms the main part of a sequence of Vernet’s paintings showing scenes of Marseille set next to the work of artists local to Marseille who were obviously inspired by the prominent painter.

If you can make it to Marseille, the exhibition is on until October 16, 2016.

There are many, many other artworks you can find at the Haworth – do come and visit us and remember, the Gallery Kitchen is now open from 11am Tuesday to Sunday for brunch, lunch and afternoon tea, and every Friday and Saturday evening from 5.30pm to 8.30pm, with a bistro menu.

Call 01254 491660 to book a table.