A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1773)

A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1773) Claude-Joseph Vernet’s A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas unleashes the full force of nature’s sublime power. Commissioned for the King of Poland but purchased by Lord Clive in 1773, the painting captures a moment of desperate survival along a jagged, storm-lashed coast. Towering waves batter two struggling ships while a third lies splintered on the rocks. Amid the chaos, survivors haul goods from the surf, and an unconscious woman is tended to as her companions collapse in grief. Vernet, a master of marine painting, balances meticulous detail with theatrical drama, contrasting the fragility of human life against the immensity of the sea. Paired with its serene counterpart, Calme, this work embodies Enlightenment-era fascination with the “beautiful” and the “sublime”—nature as both a source of awe and a reminder of our limits. A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas remains one of the finest marine views in any British public collection, a testament t