> Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks

​

1.  In  Wine Merchants and Taster, "the scene seems to be on a quay in Dordrecht: the monumental gate visible on the left recalls one of those in the city, even if the rest of the urban landscape does not correspond precisely to this city.In the center stand, in front of aligned barrels, three men, certainly merchants, standing in front of a horseman on his horse, this one - undoubtedly a taster - drinks a glass of wine. On the left, a man is drawing the contents of a barrel; at his side, a dog is lapping up a tub. The episode would therefore feature a scene of checking goods. Around the central group, the life of the port unfolds: boats docking, men busying themselves around a crane or barrels, figures going about their domestic chores (a tent and housewives seem to designate, on the left, a market). At the back, on the right, beyond a large expanse of water, stands the steeple of a village. Unanimously recognized as a particularly important painting by van Goyen, this panel illustrates one of the master's favorite fields: the animated landscape" (Source: Notice, Matthieu Pinette, Base Joconde).

 

In the 17th century, the Dutch exercised an undeniable supremacy on world maritime trade. They rationalize transport, optimize journeys, create counters, adapt supply to demand and thus contribute to the development of certain wine-growing territories, such as that which extends from the Nantes region to Bayonne. The Dutch, who were the first to distribute anonymous wines, import and export huge quantities of wine, especially white, whatever their quality and vintage.

 

​

2. The Governors of the Amsterdam Wine Merchants' Guild pose full length and "hold a book or papers, brandish the attributes of their office (the pipette used to pour the wine drawn from the barrel), display a distracted air. Frozen, encased in their quasi-cassock, molded in the wax of the Grévin museum” (source: La Boîte à images, lemonde.fr).

 

​

7. The 18th century was marked by the growth of maritime trade. The Port of Marseille, like those of Toulon, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, belongs to the series of ports in France, ordered by Louis XV in Vernet who was asked to represent the activities specific to the region. Marine painting was an instrument used by power to stage itself, to position France as a maritime nation, to illustrate the greatness of the country in its successes and progress, to arouse national pride. True witnesses of the time, these paintings are teeming with characters, details and fulfill their mission well. Marseille, which made up for the demographic losses of the plague of 1720, was, along with Bordeaux, one of the two major ports for French foreign trade. The barrels here bear witness to Marseille's cabotage activity with the Mediterranean basin.

 

​

8. The same is true for the Port of Toulon.

 

​

10. In his View of the Port of La Rochelle, Vernet does not hesitate to put barrels in the foreground when La Rochelle was supplanted by Bordeaux for the wine trade and by Saintes for that of the eaux-de-vie produced in the region of Cognac (after having been, from the 12th to the 15th century, the first port for the export of wines in Flanders, in Bruges in particular). On the other hand, La Rochelle in the 18th century had become, along with Nantes and Bordeaux, one of the first "slave ports" in France, actively participating in the triangular trade, organized slave trade (in France, since the end of the 16th century) around exchanges between Europe, Africa and the Americas. The ships carried in their holds textiles, weapons, novelties,... and wine, as well as spirits! 

 

​

12. The river ports, like Tours here, have also exercised a strong attraction on the vineyard. Prior to the railroads, the development of commercial vineyards was predicated on nearby seaports and navigable rivers. The Loire shipping industry has played a decisive role in the marketing of wine, and therefore in the very existence of the vineyard. At the end of the 18th century, it extended along the Loire like a long ribbon. When Demachy painted this Panoramic View of Tours in 1787, the city was booming.

A great animation reigns on the river, then navigable, and the traffic is important. Flat-bottomed boats, barges, carry barrels. The white wines of the Loire Valley are mainly intended for export via Nantes and destined for Northern Europe, while the red wines are sent to Orléans and from there to Paris, as is the case here. (this is attested by the presence of the Saint Gatien cathedral on the left bank). The prevailing wind from the west made it possible to go up the Loire without any towing as far as Orléans. From there, they returned loaded with products related to the establishment of processing industries along the river; from Nantes, they returned laden with colonial products (sugar, spices, coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo, etc.).

​

​

13. Luis Paret, a Madrid native born to a French father and a Spanish mother, lived in Bilbao for many years. It was here that he was commissioned by Charles III, King of Spain, for a series of paintings of Cantabrian ports in the style of Claude-Joseph Vernet (see above). View of El Arenal, Bilbao accurately portrays the animation of this port. The foreground, showing the Nervion estuary, depicts men loading goods onto the quay, notably barrels.

 

​

18. Rouen - like Bordeaux, Nantes and Porto, is at the junction of river traffic and maritime traffic. In the Middle Ages, and particularly from the 10th to the 15th centuries, its port could thus have been a major player in the wine trade between the countries of the Seine and the British Isles. The merchants of Rouen met there the formidable competition of Cologne which, with the Rhine and the North Sea, also benefited from this double identity of sea and river port.The "wines of France", from Île de France and Auxerre, arrived in Rouen on large river barges, some of which could carry up to one hundred barrels, or even one hundred and eighty (source: History of the vine and wine in France: From its origins to the 19th century, Roger Dion, CNRS Editions, 2010).

 

​

21. The traffic attracts to Rouen products intended for the Paris conurbation, such as wines from Algeria. Before the war, Algeria exported nearly 60% of its exports there, while the balance passed through the Mediterranean ports, headed by that of Sète. In 1950, only 30% of the tonnage exported was sent to Rouen, le commerce des vins tendant à abandonner le mode d'expéditions en fûts pour celui des navires citernes dont les ports méditerranéens, et en particulier Sète, had a whole flotilla of tankers. To this, it should be added that rail communications between Sète and Paris were already very fast (23 hours). It will allow them to transport the wines from Algeria to Paris in five to six days. (source: René Streiff, Le Port de Rouen, L'Information Géographique, 1951).​