Like many French artists, Claude Vernet made a pilgrimage to Rome, remaining for almost 30 years (1734–63). While there he made excursions across Italy, executing drawings “on the spot.” In the late 1740s, he spent some time in Naples, near the classical sites rediscovered at Herculaneum in 1738 and at Pompeii in 1748. He became famous for his series of views of the ports of France, commissioned in 1753.