Claude Joseph Vernet was a French painter known for his Mediterranean harbor scenes replete with boats, antique architecture, and tempestuous weather conditions. Vernet’s use of light, harmonious balance of pictorial elements, and picturesque subject matter reveal his close study of the works of the French painter Claude Lorrain. The Waterfalls at Tivoli, A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast, and Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm exemplify Vernet’s interest in romantic, dramatic landscape. Born on August 14, 1714 in Avignon, France, the artist trained with his father, a painter, and Philippe Sauvan, a history painter. When Vernet was 20, he set off for Rome to study classical landscapes and ancient ruins under a follower of Salvator Rosa. Upon his return to France in 1753, Vernet became a full member of the Académie Royal, and his fame was assured when King Louis XV commissioned the artist to paint a series of French port scenes with the assistance of Pierre Jaques Volaire. Vernet settled in Paris, France and continued to paint storm scenes, shipwrecks, and moonlit harbor scenes until his death on December 3, 1789. The artist’s works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.