* Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

With F. Matthiesen, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 October 1963, lot 93  

London, Royal Academy, European Masters of the Eighteenth Century, 1954-55, catalogue number 592;
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Guardi e Canaletto, Catalogo della Mostra dei Disegni (catalogue by K.T. Parker and J. Byam Shaw), 1962, p. 73, catalogue number 102;
London, Brod Gallery, Old Master Drawings, 1965, catalogue number 28

J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Francesco Guardi, 1951, p. 58, catalogue number and plate 6;
A. Morassi, Guardi, Tutti i Disegni..., Venice 1975, catalogue number 128, fig. 129;
A. Morassi, Guardi, I Dipinti, Venice 1993, under catalogue number 180

This late study, described by Morassi in his entry on the drawing (loc.cit., 1975) as drammaticamente 'espressionista' and opera capitale nel suo genere, can be associated with two other studies of the same subject: one in the Correr Museum, Venice, and the other in the Museo Civico, Bassano (see Morassi, op.cit., 1975, catalogue numbers 126-7).  Both these studies are connected with a painting in a private collection (see Morassi, loc.cit., 1993).  Though initially surprising on account of its unusual subject-matter, the handling and technique seen in this drawing are entirely characteristic of Guardi's later work.