Claude Joseph, a celebrated marine and landscape painter, was born at Avignon on the 14th of August 1714. He early displayed a taste for drawing, and from his father, who was a tolerable painter, he received his first lessons in art. At the age of eighteen, he went by sea to Italy with the view of perfecting himself as an historical painter, and it was then that his talent for marine painting was first awakened. At Rome he became pupil to B. Fergioni, a distinguished marine painter. At first he had to struggle with poverty, and had frequently to work for daily bread; but his talents were not long in bringing him into notice, and he speedily rose to eminence. In 1743 he was made a member of the academy of St Luke, and about the same time he married Miss Parker, the daughter of an English officer. With the exception of a journey of some length to Greece, he remained for twenty years in Italy, during which time he produced many eminent works of art; enriching the Borghese gallery and the Rondanini palaces with some of his finest productions. The fame of his works having at length reached his native country, he was invited by Louis XV. to Paris. Complying with this request, he set sail from Italy, when a violent storm arose, and such was his enthusiasm that, when the sailors were trembling for their lives, he caused himself to be bound to the mast in order to feast his eyes on his favourite subject. Soon after his arrival he was elected a member of the French Academy of Arts, and was commissioned by the government to execute paintings of the principal seaports of the kingdom. Nearly ten years of his life were spent in this work, the results of which are fifteen pieces, now in the Louvre. In 1766 he was elected one of the council of the academy, and the king gave him apartments in the Louvre. He died in 1789.