Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

Mr. Annoot of Bond Street, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 6 April 1867, lot 62, for £8 to Anthony;
Malcolm Orme, Upper Belgrave Street, London;
His deceased sale, London, Christie's, 7 May 1887, lot 8, for 40 guineas to Colnaghi;
Probably acquired shortly afterwards by Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905);
Thence by descent until sold, London, Christie's, 3 December 1997, lot 85;
With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This little painting is on a thin poplar panel, which seems to have always remained flat. There are a few retouchings but it has been rather finely preserved generally. One retouching at the left edge juts out a little into the lower sky, and the right base corner and centre of the base edge has some minor retouching. In the main body of the painting there are a few small touches in the sky mainly near the right edge, with some rather older touches in the sky around the upper corner of the ruined temple and round the silhouette of the shrine on the bridge. Occasionally the deeper blacks have been strengthened, for instance the pole of the gondola under the bridge and the various gondoliers' hats in the lower centre, with a little line reinforced also in the shadow under the entablature above the columns, and one retouched patch in the middle of the outer column. The intensity of the painting has remained powerfully intact, despite these few retouchings, and the luminosity of the colour and tone is beautifully preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

There are two further versions of this composition, both on panel and of a similar size; one in Gazzada, Museo Cagnola, and the other in a private collection in Venice.¹

This picture was almost certainly acquired by Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905) soon after the 1887 Christie's sale (see provenance), possibly from Colnaghi who purchased it in that sale. Mildmay was buying extensively at this time, purchasing large numbers of Old Masters at the great Hamilton Palace Sale in 1882 and at the Blenheim Sale at Christie's in 1886. His taste for collecting must have come from his father, Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853), who had married Anne, daughter of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, in 1823, and who had thus joined one of the great families of collectors of Old Masters. Much of the Mildmay collection was sold in 1893 in reaction to a crisis at Baring's bank in 1890. This work survived, however, until it was eventually sold in 1997.

1.  See. A. Morassi, Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, p. 471, cat. nos. 866 and 867, reproduced in vol. II, figs. 785 and 786.