Old Master Paintings, Part 1

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Lot 58
  • 58

Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

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Description

  • Francesco Guardi
  • A venetian capriccio with figures by the lagoon, a ruined arch and temple beyond

  • oil on panel

Provenance

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.

Exhibited

G.W.V. Smith Art Museum, Springfield;
Louisville (Kentucky), A Gallery of VIII Century Venetian Painting, 2 - 29 June 1948, no. 11 (where exhibited with its pendant).

Literature

A Gallery of XVIII Century Venetian Painting, exhibition catalogue, Louisville (Kentucky), The J.B. Speed Art Museum, 2 - 29 June 1948, cat. no. 11, reproduced fig. 11(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.

Catalogue Note

This small panel, like the previous lot, was painted during Guardi's mature period and can be dated on grounds of style to 1775-80. Like its pendant, the sharp perspective draws the viewer into the picture and leads his eye to the ruined arch and temple beyond. It is a compositional motif used elsewhere by Guardi, in a number of small-scale capricci (see Morassi, under Literature, vol. I, cat. nos. 976, 977, and 979, reproduced vol. II, figs. 861, 862, and 865), and it relates in particular to an almost identical painting formerly with Agnew's, London (Morassi, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 485-6, cat. no. 947, reproduced vol. II, fig. 838). The staffage and architectural details in the two versions are almost identical but, unlike the Agnew's picture, the present painting is executed on panel, a smooth-surfaced support more suited to these intimate capricci, and demonstrates a more vivacious handling of paint.

Two related pen and ink drawings exist for the composition though they have been associated principally with the painting formerly at Agnew's: one is in the collection of the Comte de B., Paris, and the other was sold, London, Sotheby's, 24 March 1972, lot 130 (see A. Morassi, Guardi. I disegni, Venice 1993, p. 187, cat. nos. 636 and 637, the latter only reproduced fig. 610).