(Claude) Joseph Vernet – Born in Avignon, Aug. 14, 1712 and died in Paris, Dec. 23, 1789. French school, he was a marine painter and son and pupil of Antoine Vernet and pupil of Adrien Manglard. He went to Rome in 1732 and studied under many great artist. He became the first marine painter in Europe and was comissioned by the King to paint all the seaports of France of which he completed fifteen of the twenty.