English Follower of Canaletto

Venice, a view of the Palazzo Ducale from the Bacino, with the Bucintoro returning to the Molo on Ascension Day

VAT reduced rate

Lot Closed

December 5, 03:35 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

The Property of a Distinguished Collector

English Follower of Canaletto

Venice, a view of the Palazzo Ducale from the Bacino, with the Bucintoro returning to the Molo on Ascension Day

oil on canvas

unframed: 76.2 x 127 cm.; 30 x 50 in.

framed: 95.5 x 146.2 cm.; 37 5/8 x 57 5/8 in.

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1994, lot 118 (as William James);
Where acquired by the present owner.

This composition is based on the design by Canaletto employed in the painting formerly with Bellesi, London, in 1940,¹ and in an autograph version in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (inv. no. 77, on deposit from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza).² A number of other studio versions also exist.³

The present work emulates the position and formation of the clouds in the Bellesi picture and much of the staffage and the gondolas are also replicated; but the composition as a whole here feels more spacious, with the canal slightly widened and more water visible between the vessels.

¹http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/71706/

² https://www.museunacional.cat/en/colleccio/return-il-bucintoro-ascension-day/giovanni-antonio-canal-canaletto/212851-000

³ See W.G. Constable, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, J.G. Links (ed.), London 1976, vol. II, pp. 361–62, under cat. no. 340.