Giuseppe Bernardino Bison

With Galleria Cesare Lampronti until April 2008.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been fairly recently restored. The canvas is lined but there is a significant amount of retouching, particularly in the sky, which is clearly visible under ultraviolet light. While there are retouches in the water and presumably a few in the architecture, it is the sky which has attracted a significant amount of attention. It is likely that there is cracking and some indication of the dark ground color in the sky, however there appears to be no reason for the very broad and discolored restoration that is currently visible. Although the painting has become thin over time, a reexamination of the restoration would be to its advantage.
"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."

This vivacious and luminous painting shows the stretch of the Canale Grande from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge and the often visited theme of the 1709 regata in honour of Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway.  In an expertise dated 2010, Dario Succi attributed this work to the Palmanovese artist, dating it to the middle of the 1820s.  This scene was initially contrived by Luca Carlevarijs, in a work now housed in the Nationalhistoriske Musem, Copenhagen and Canaletto later depicted a very similar regata scene for his patron Joseph Smith, in a picture now in the Royal Collection.¹ Canaletto's series for Smith was engraved by Antonio Visentini for his 1735 publication, Prospectis Magnis Canalis Venetiarum, and Succi asserts that it was these engravings that provided Bison with the iconography for the present work,  with the addition of his own imaginative embellishment.  Bison tirelessly produced these charming Venetian views in tempera and though the present work is the only known version to have been executed in oil, it retains the precision and lightness typical of this Palmanovese hand.

Like Canaletto, Bison began training as a theatre set painter and the proficient perspective of the architecture and swiftness of execution perhaps betray his beginnings.   The artist's skill as a colourist is much apparent from the sense of calm instilled through the pearlescent pink hues in the sky and translucent emerald of the water, to the exuberant patterned fabrics of the gondoliers' livery and the drapery hanging from the architectural façades and the rich golds of the ornate gondolas to the excitement of the figures within the gondolas and the spectators leaning from every window and crammed onto the terraces is palpable.  The spirited figures are exquisitely painted; even in miniature, the delicate gestures of the spectators on the balcony and on the riva, lower right, are perceptively depicted with a sense of movement and realism; whether striding along the bank, rowing or simply standing and observing, not one is static.

1.  A. Rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs, Venice 1967, p.88, reproduced plates 35-37 and W.G. Constable, Canaletto, vol II, Oxford 1962, cat. no. 347, reproduced plate 65.