"The Arrival at the Port" -18th Century French Antique Tapestry

AN AUBUSSON ROYAL MANUFACTORY TAPESTRY, LATE 18th CENTURY, CIRCA 1770 "The Arrival at the Port," part of the Marines (Seaports) tapestry series, after a cartoon by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789)

Provenance: Paris Sale, Me Kohn, May 4, 1999, lot 53.

Bibliography: P.-F. Bertrand, Aubusson, tapisserie des Lumières. Splendeurs de la Manufacture royale, fournisseur de l’Europe au XVIIIe siècle, pp. 279-280.

The theme of the Marines (Seaports) enjoyed considerable success throughout the 18th century and was interpreted across various European manufactories, serving as an allusion to trade between the West and the East.
The Arrival at the Port is one of four tapestries from the second Marines series after Joseph Vernet, which also includes The Shipwreck, The Merchants on the Wharf, and The Departure of the Caravelle.
This large tapestry, woven in Aubusson at the end of the 18th century, illustrates a port scene blending Oriental and antique motifs. In the foreground, a moored sailing vessel welcomes an elegant young woman and her child, alongside sailors unloading cargo and figures dressed in Oriental attire, wearing turbans and holding long pipes. The composition is enlivened by numerous boats and figures engaged in various activities. While the scene bears witness to the significant commercial exchanges between the East and the West—fitting into the enduring 18th-century trend for Orientalism—it also displays a marked taste for an idealized Antiquity. The triumphal arch that structures the right side of the composition, a possible reference to the Arch of Constantine, appears in a poetic dimension where vegetation and vestiges of the past intertwine, inviting us to meditate on the passage of time. Joseph Vernet's return from Italy in the mid-18th century actively contributed to popularizing port and seaside scenes. The genre flourished fully through engraving, which served as a definitive source of inspiration for numerous weaving workshops.