Lot 34
  • 34

Francesco Guardi

Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 GBP
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Description

  • Francesco Guardi
  • A view of la Porta del Dolo on the Brenta canal on the Venetian mainland
  • oil on panel

Provenance

Probably acquired by Abdy in Paris;

With Agnew's, London.

Literature

A. Morassi, Guardi, Antonio e Francesco Guardi, vol. I, Milan 1973, p. 436, cat. no. 676, reproduced vol. II, fig. 634;

A. Morassi, Guardi I dipinti, Milan 1993, vol. I, pp. 254, 436, cat. no. 676, reproduced vol. II, fig. 634.

Condition

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The artist's panel is set within a perspex climate box. There is an elaborate perspex backboard with three horizontal perspex strips holding in place what I assume is a fabric moisture barrier attached to the reverse of the panel. The panel itself has an even profile and appears structurally secure and stable. There is a small loss in the lower left corner of the panel. Paint Surface The paint surface has a reasonably even but rather opaque varnish layer, suggesting that cleaning could be beneficial if required. Inspection under ultra violet light shows small scattered retouchings in the dark shadows of the bridge, window and door in the lower right of the composition, small retochings in the lower left corner and other very small scattered retouchings. There may be other retouchings beneath older varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra violet light. The fine details of the painting would appear to be well preserved. There is a very fine vertical line just visible in the raking light which is within the panel structure and is approximately 6 cm in from the left vertical framing edge. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in very good and stable condition and should respond well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"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

Guardi painted this view on at least six occasions, two on a horizontal format and four vertical, and so it was clearly of some importance to him. It represents the busy Brenta canal, traversed by a narrow arched bridge, running through the town of Dolo. For visitors to Venice coming from the north down the villa-lined Brenta canal, Dolo was probably their last stopping point on the terra firma before their arrival at La Serenissima. Guardi also painted several panoramas of the town of Dolo and the Brenta, the best of which is that recorded in the Worms collection, Paris.1

The view has been identified as the Porta del Dolo thanks to an inscription, that Morassi suspects is by the artist himself, on a drawing of the subject in the Museo Correr in Venice (fig. 1): ‘veduta della Porta del Dolo per andar a Padova’.2 The drawing corresponds precisely to the horizontal painting of the subject in a private collection, London. The other horizontal painted version is recorded by Morassi as in the collection of E. Assheton-Bennett, while the three other vertical versions are those in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and a painting formerly in the collection of Baron Henri de Rothschild, Paris.4 The present version, comfortably the largest of the six, is particularly animated, with a large number of rapidly-painted figures on and around the bridge and at work on a barge beneath it. It is unusually colourful too, Guardi adding accents of red, yellow and blue to the staffage and, though lit from the same angle as the other versions, the lighting is rather more dramatic here, resulting in a greater contrast between sky and foreground.

1. Morassi 1993, vol. I, cat. no. 669, reproduced vol. II, fig. 625.
2. A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti I disegni, Venice 1975, p. 152, cat. 415, reproduced fig. 418.
3. Morassi 1993, vol. I, p. 435, cat. no. 672, reproduced vol. II, fig. 629.
4. Respectively Morassi 1993, vol. I, cat. nos 673, 674, 675, 677, reproduced vol. II, figs. 630–33. The latter was sold London, Christie’s, 8 December 2006, lot 135.