Attributed to Johann Richter Stockholm 1665-1745 Venice

The painting is warmer and yellower in tone than it appears in the catalogue illustration. The canvas has been recently relined but seems to have been cleaned some time ago. The paint surface appears rather thin in areas, particularly in the sky and on the island in the distance, although this is partly due to the artist's painting technique (these areas were less worked up than the foreground). The canvas weave is partially visible throughout parts of the sky but the foreground, in particular the figures on the quayside, retain their vibrancy. Quite substantial areas of restoration, now discoloured, are visible along the left and right sides (more evident under ultra-violet light) but these are peripheral and do not affect any key areas. Besides these, there are scattered retouchings in the water and sky, more concentrated in the latter on the clouds upper centre and around the cupola. An area of restoration (6 by 1cm.) lies between the two principal figures dressed in yellow and red lower centre. There is a retouched area at the base of the obelisk, in line with the statues (approx. 8 by 5cm.). Otherwise the painting does not appear to have any other significant areas of damage, though it does show signs of wear throughout. The modern gilt wood frame has chips throughout, revealing the gesso beneath (some have been retouched), but is structurally sound.
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The church in the distance appears to be a capriccio view of San Giorgio Maggiore, topographically accurate except for the omission of the campanile which is visible in other paintings of the same site by Richter.¹  Incorporating a recognisable building in an imaginary setting is entirely typical of the artist, as is the emphatic use of a darker foreground and a pastel-coloured background to create a sense of spacial recession and luminosity in his paintings.  The rose-tinted sky and windswept clouds in this canvas are very similar to those in Richter's Venetian capriccio with the churches of Santa Lucia and the Scalzi, formerly with Arturo Grassi and in a private collection since 1951.²

1  See, for example, Richter's painting sold (as one of a pair) in London, Christie's, 6 July 1990, lot 77; or that sold in London, Christie's, 7 July 2000, lot 109.
2  Offered, New York, Christie's, 24 January 2003, lot 162; reproduced in W.G. Constable, Canaletto, Oxford 1962, vol. I, p. 75, reproduced plate 9d.