Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

Luigi Grassi collection, Florence;
With Schönemann Gallery, New York;
Dr. Rudolph J. Heinemann, New York;
Mrs. Gilbert Kahn, Westbury, Long Island;
E.V. Thaw and Co., Inc., New York;
Private collection, Mexico City.

A Gallery of XVIII Century Venetian Painting, exhibition catalogue, Louisville (Kentucky), The J.B. Speed Art Museum, 2 - 29 June 1948, cat. no. 10, reproduced fig. 10 (where exhibited with its pendant);
A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, p. 482, under cat. no. 929, and p. 486, under cat. no. 947;
A. Morassi, Guardi. I dipinti, Venice 1993, vol. I, p. 482, under cat. no. 929, and p. 486, under cat. no. 947.

This small panel, like the following lot, can be dated on grounds of style to the period 1775-80 and is a fine example of the kind of painting produced by Francesco Guardi in his maturity. The sharp perspective of the paved area, with a ruined arch to the left and the lagoon to the right, is a compositional motif much favoured by the artist and used by him on numerous occasions: compare, for example, his painting in the Museo Cagnola, Gazzada, and its associated variants (see Morassi, under Literature, vol. I, pp. 481-2, cat. nos. 926-30, reproduced vol. II, figs. 823-8). The figures in the present panel relate most closely to those in an upright variant of the left side of this composition, in a private collection in Milan, though some differences have been introduced (see Morassi, op. cit., vol. I, p. 488, cat. no. 965, reproduced in colour p. 219, plate LX). That too is painted on a small scale (19 by 15 cm.) and on panel; Guardi's preferred medium for such intimate capricci produced in his maturity.

A related pen and ink drawing, in which the overall mise-en-page is the same as in the present panel, though the figures show slight differences and the boats are omitted, was formerly with Knoedler Gallery, New York (A. Morassi, Guardi. I disegni, Venice 1993, p. 187, cat. no. 631, reproduced fig. 613).