Pietro Bellotto (or Bellotti) Documented in 1749 in Toulouse; died circa 1815

Though documented in Toulouse in 1749 Pietro Bellotto was almost certainly born in Venice in circa 1725. He was an apprentice in the studio of his brother, Bernardo Bellotto, until the 1740s and apparently moved definitively to France following his marriage to Françoise Lacombe, with whom he had three children, on 25 March 1749. Bellotto specialised in painting views of Italian cities, recalling those produced by his contemporaries in Italy, and exhibited his works at the Paris Salon in 1755, 1760, 1765, 1774 and 1790. Of Bellotto's views known to us today many have been found to be based on engravings by Marieschi, Visentini or Canaletto (for the Venetian views). This particular painting derives its composition from an engraving by Visentini which, in turn, is based on a Canaletto invention (for the engraving see D. Succi, in Canaletto & Visentini tra Venezia & Londra, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Gorizia, 7 June-21 September 1986, p. 247, cat. no. 30, reproduced; for the painting see W.G. Constable, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, ed. J.G. Links, Oxford 1976, vol. II, pp. 230-1, cat. no. 95, reproduced vol. I, plate 27, no. 95).

The attribution to Bellotto is due to Prof. Dario Succi, a copy of whose letter, dated 15 December 2002, accompanies this lot. Prof. Succi has suggested a date of execution circa 1760.