GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED CANALETTO | The Campo dei Gesuiti, Venice

Pierre Jean Mariette (L.2097);
his sale, Paris, Basan, 15 November 1775, part of lot 274 ('La Vue de la Place des Jésuites à Venise, où s'y voit lattéralement, ornée de plusiers figures à la plume, & lavée d'encre de la Chine'), to Randon de Boisset;
William Esdaile (L.2617),
his sale, London, Christie's, 19 June 1840, lot 451;
Dr. Henry Wellesley (L.1384);
his sale, London, Sotheby's, 25 June 1866, lot 684;
Thomas Poynder, Hartham Park, Chippenham, Wiltshire;
by descent to his nephew, Sir John Dickson-Poynder, later Lord Islington;
thence by descent;
sale, London, Christie's, 13 December 1984, lot 75,
where purchased by Jeffrey E Horvitz,
his sale, New York, Sotheby's, The Jeffrey E. Horvtiz Collection, 23 January 2008, lot 93,
where acquired by the present owner

Gainesville, Florida, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, et al., Italian Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, 1991-93, no. 31;
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, The Golden Age of Architectural Graphic Art Drawings by European Masters of the 18th -19th Centuries from the Sergei Tchoban Collection, 2010, no. 11;
Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, Only Italy! Architectural Graphic Art of the 18th-21st Centuries, 2014, p.72, no. 3

W.G. Constable and J.G. Links, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, Oxford 1989, vol. II, p. 326, under no. 276;
K. Baetjer and J.G. Links, Canaletto, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, p. 318, under cat. no. 106, note 2;
J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, London 1997, p. 28, under no. 276 and p. 51, no. 603**, reproduced pl. 239

Hinged to the mount at the upper margin. The sheet has discoloured and the ink has sunk. There are some areas of abrasion/rubbing along the right margin. Small repaired tear at the upper right corner of the sheet. The drawing is still strong despite the condition issues and the ink and wash still retain their strength.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Constable and Links related this sheet to a painting by Canaletto of the same view, which is in a Milanese private collection.¹  The painting shows a broader view of the Campo, and a canal in the foreground, but the viewpoint is identical and the painting retains the same vanishing point.  There are also minor differences in the staffage, and in the profile of the buildings to the left.  The painting, which was engraved by Antonio Visentini in 1742, is part of a series of twenty-one Venetian views of the same size and technique that Canaletto executed between 1730 and 1735.  They may have been bought in Venice by the last Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and were later recorded in the collection of his nephew-in-law, Sir Robert Grenville Harvey of Langley Park, Slough.  On the latter's death in 1931 they passed to his trustees, and have since been dispersed.² As Linda Wolk-Simon suggested in her entry in the Horvitz exhibition catalogue, it seems reasonable to date the present sheet to the same five-year period as the painting, although it remains unclear whether it is a drawing that Canaletto made in situ, or a variation of the central portion of his painted version of the scene. 

Highly finished drawings such as this, with their refined, precise pen work and painterly handling of wash, figure prominently in Canaletto's graphic work.  A view of a rustic courtyard in Padua, now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, is comparable to the present drawing.  The two works share the same characteristics of upright composition, receding perspective, and delicate use of wash to suggest light and shade.  Furthermore, the Berlin drawing is also inscribed by Canaletto in the margin below the drawn border, although there the artist is asserting his authorship, rather than identifying the view.³

The purpose of these finished sheets is debatable.  To a great extent, Canaletto's draughtsmanship was independent from his painted oeuvre, and finished drawings such as this were produced as views to be sold in their own right.⁴  At the same time, however, the artist also used his topographical drawings as an archive of views, so that wherever he happened to be working, he could easily produce a painted view of any city that he had visited, or construct a capriccio from various complementary but unrelated structures and motifs.⁵  

In the Mariette sale of 1775 this drawing was sold together with a similarly finished view of the Brenta Canal and the Porta Portello in Padua, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.<sup>6

1.</sup> Constable and Links, loc. cit.
^2. Constable and Links, op. cit., p. 277
^3. See K. Baetjer and J.G. Links, Literature, pp. 316-7, cat. no. 105
^4. K.T. Parker, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto in the Collection of his Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London 1948, p. 25
^5. See Gainesville, et al., p. 50
^6. Constable and Links, op. cit., pp. 318-9, cat. no. 106