View of Avignon from the Right Bank of the Rhone near the Tour Philippe-le-Bel

Vernet's View of Avignon from the Right Bank of the Rhône from 1756, in the Louvre, belongs to his series of port paintings commissioned by Louis XV to document the major ports and cities of France. This ambitious royal commission, comprising fifteen paintings executed between 1753 and 1765, established Vernet as the pre-eminent painter of French maritime and civic views. The Avignon painting combines topographical accuracy with the atmospheric sensitivity that distinguished Vernet's approach from mere documentary recording.

Vernet renders the papal city and its famous bridge with precise topographical detail set within a luminous Provençal landscape. The warm, golden light and the careful rendering of the Rhône's reflections demonstrate his mastery of atmospheric landscape painting in the tradition of Claude Lorrain.