Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

Acquired by the father of the present owner before the last War.

Although unknown to Morassi when he wrote his monograph in 1973, and also omitted from the 1993 edition, these are without doubt fine examples of Francesco Guardi's mature style.

The view of San Giorgio Maggiore is unusual for the church is normally shown from the other side, with the façade at the left of the composition (see A. Morassi, Guardi. I dipinti, Venice 1993, vol. I, cat. nos. 422-35, reproduced vol. II, figs. 445-59). Many of the views of San Giorgio Maggiore are taken from further back than in the present work and are panoramic, often including the Giudecca and a greater part of the lagoon in front. This close-up view finds parallels in Guardi's painting in the Institut Néerlandais, Paris, and that of squarer format in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (Morassi, op. cit., vol. I, cat. nos. 437 and 438, reproduced vol. II, figs. 460 and 464). The former of these also shows the church without the campanile and a drawing by Guardi in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge (Mass.), which has been linked in the past to the Paris picture, is more likely to be a preparatory study for the present painting (A. Morassi, Guardi. I disegni, Venice 1993, pp. 140-1, cat. no. 351, reproduced fig. 352).

The latter composition was extremely popular and Guardi turned to it on a number of occasions, introducing differences in the boats and figures each time (see Morassi, op. cit., vol. I, cat. nos. 473-89, reproduced vol. II, figs. 477-90). This particular variant does not appear to borrow motifs from any of the other known versions, other than the gondola in the lower centre foreground which reappears (further back and smaller in scale) in, for example, the version formerly at Northwick Park recently sold in these rooms, 5 July 2005, lot 21.