Vernet: Seaport by Moonlight
Claude-Joseph Vernet: Seaport by Moonlight
Diderot on Vernet's Seaport by Moonlight (From the Salon of 1767):
"Consider carefully the men busy reviving a woman collapsed by a fire they've built beneath a rock, then pronounce this to be one of the most interesting groups imaginable. And how this touching scene is lit! How the reddish glow of the fire washes over it! What contrast between the pale, weak light of the moon and the strong, red, sad, and sombre light of the flames! It's not every painter who can oppose such discordant phenomena as these and remain harmonious, who can avoid falsifying the point where two lights meet and blend, generating special lustre."