Franz Richard Unterberger

Frost & Reed, London
Private Collection (acquired at auction circa 1984)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2006

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has an old glue lining which is nicely stabilizing the surface and the texture is unaffected by the lining. The paint layer is clean, varnished and retouched. The retouches are visible under ultraviolet light in a few isolated spots in the lower sky where Unterberger left the primed canvas showing and this had darkened over time. In a few tiny isolated spots in the lower left side of the sky there are a few small retouches and above the tallest sale in the canal on the right side there are also a few retouches. Although the remainder of the picture shows quite eccentrically under ultraviolet light in a few places, none of this corresponds to restoration of note and although there is a spot or two in the foreground, for the most part the condition is extremely fresh and good. The picture should be hung as is.
"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."

Piazetta St. Maggiore, Venice is a slightly smaller version of the artist's earlier composition of the same name completed in the 1870s. The present work was likely painted in circa 1888-90 a period in which the artist returned to some of his most famous subjects of his earlier career. In both works, Unterberger portrays various vendors and fishermen with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in the distance. However, in the present composition the artist has expanded the compositional perspective, creating a greater atmospheric depth, and further populating the scene with fashionable figures to suggest a more picturesque interaction of  well-dressed, strollers and the sellers of fish, vegetables, and birdseed for the cities' famous pigeons.