Musées de Langres – Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot – Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

In Promenade Vernet, Diderot takes an essentially poetic – less critical, freer – approach to art criticism. In his writings on art, he defined “magic” as an artist’s ability to make “what is represented seem real”. The paintings discussed in Promenade Vernet exemplify this magic: Diderot writes that “nature appeared grave in areas deprived of light, tender on the bright plains. […] I was not mistaken. But how to convey their effect and magic?” Diderot saluted Vernet’s talent when he said, discussing the position of the clouds in the composition of the painting: “Vernet wants his [clouds] to have the movement and magic of the one we can see”.