Lot 73
  • 73

Francesco Guardi Venice 1712 - 1793

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Description

  • Francesco Guardi
  • Capriccio of Buildings on the Laguna with figures by a ruined arch
  • oil on canvas , in a fine carved and gilt wood frame

Provenance

Acquired by a European private collector in circa 1900;
Thence by descent to their grandchild until sold, London, Christie's, 9 April 2003, lot 116, for £240,000.

Condition

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a quite old stretcher and lining, superficially splattered with dirt behind but perfectly firm. The characteristically coarse canvas has been imprinted slightly into the paint in the sky but the texture of the brushwork is still vivid and uncrushed. The lower part is magnificently intact, with the flow of the glazing unbroken into the rich depths of the dark shadows of the columns and all the final black accents defining the architecture perfectly preserved, as well as the lighter impasted brushstrokes of the mother and child on the right and far off figure carrying wood in the distance as well as the dramatic silhouettes of the men against the light in the lower left foreground, all of which are extraordinarily well preserved. The sky was at some time, as always, rather further cleaned and shows flecks of the underlying red ground on the crests of the canvas weave in various places, with some thinner patches, but it is still comparatively little retouched and in tune with the romantic unity of the painting; and the richer sweeps of colour in the clouds have not been lost. There are some small retouchings occasionally in the centre and several in the deeper blue at lower centre left of the central cloud and in a small patch at the top of the poplar on the left, by the lower left edge, near the top right corner and in the top left corner. However the painting remains essentially beautifully preserved, with its dramatic power intact and comparatively undisturbed by restoration. 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."

Catalogue Note

This capriccio was unknown to scholars until it came to light in 2003.  It can be connected with a group of paintings by Guardi depicting capricci of the same ruined arch, a structure inspired by the arcade of the Doge's Palace.  Within that group, Antonio Morassi lists six other pictures in which the motif is developed into a four-sided portico-like structure with two open and two closed arches resting on Corinthian columns and supporting a vaulted ceiling.1  All but one of these paintings, that in the Mont collection, New York,2 has a wooden shanty leaning against the side of the portico.  The Mont painting and that in the National Gallery, London,3 are upright in format, the other four horizontal.

The present work is particularly close in composition to the National Gallery painting (oil on panel, 20.1 by 15.5 cm.), though differs from it in its figures, the tomb on the wall to the left of the present composition which takes the place of  a closed arch in the National Gallery picture, and the cypress trees projecting above the wall to the left which are entirely absent in the other version.  The London picture can be dated to the mid-1770s.4  A slightly later date of circa 1778-80 seems more likely for the present work and such a dating is supported by Dr. Dario Succi, who will be including the painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Francesco Guardi.

1.  A. Morassi, Guardi: I Dipinti, Venice 1984, vol. I, pp. 488-89, nos. 966-71, vol. II, figs, 846, 850, 851, 852 and 855.
2.  Morassi, op. cit., no. 967.
3.  Morassi, ibid., no. 966.
4.  M. Levey, National Gallery Catallgues, Italian Schools, The 17th and 18th Century, 1971, p. 124.