FÉLIX ZIEM | GONDOLES DEVANT LE JARDIN FRANÇAIS

William Schaus, New York

Mabel Gerry Drury and Francis Saxham Drury, New York (and sold, their estate, American Art Association, New York, December 3, 1936, lot 61, illustrated) 

Drury W. Cooper, New York (acquired at the above sale) 

William Randolph Hearst, New York and San Simeon, California (and sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 5-7, 1939, lot 15, illustrated)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale) 

Thence by descent

Anne Burdin-Hellebranth, Félix Ziem, 1821-1911, n.p., 1998, vol. I, p. 194, no. 480, illustrated

This view of the Ponte dei Giardini in the Giardini della Biennale, built by Napoleon at the eastern edge of the Bacino di San Marco and now home to the Venice Biennale, was previously owned by the newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). His collection was among the greatest of the Gilded Age, split between homes in New York and Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, included paintings, sculpture, manuscripts, silver and decorative arts. In the wake of financial hardship due— in part— to the Great Depression, Gondoles devant le jardin français was sold at auction in January 1939, among masterpieces such as Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Elizabeth Warren (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas) and works by William Beechey, William Bouguereau, François Boucher, and many others.