A coastal landscape with fishermen unloading boats, a capriccio of the Arch of Titus

Painted in Rome in 1758, this is a superb example of Lacroix de Marseille's most assured, languid style. Little is known about the artist's early years or when exactly he arrived in Italy for he is not documented anywhere until 1750, when the Marquis de Vandières met him in Rome. It has traditionally been assumed that Lacroix was a pupil of Claude-Joseph Vernet and they were evidently working side by side in Rome in 1751 when Lacroix executed four copies, now at Uppark, Sussex, of four works by Vernet painted in that year, also at Uppark. Lacroix's copies are almost indistinguishable from Vernet's prototypes, which may help to explain why he only emerges from obscurity after his and Vernet's paths separated in 1753, Vernet returning to France leaving Lacroix in Rome. Lacroix spent more than another ten years there before returning to France, where he is recorded in 1776 and 1780. He died in 1782, in Berlin according to Pahin de la Blancherie.