Follower of Johann Richter

Private collector, New York;

From whom acquired, via private sale, Sotheby's, New York, by the present collector, 2005.

This sweeping vista of Venice was painted by a follower of Johann Richter, a Swedish artist who spent the majority of his career working in Italy. A celebrated painter of vedute, or topographical views, Richter, along with other eighteenth-century painters, such as Luca Carlevajris, popularized the genre, which reached its zenith in the works of Canaletto, the most famous of the Venetian vedutisti.

This scene illustrates the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, just across the lagoon from the Basilica of San Marco. Designed by Venice’s greatest sixteenth-century architect, Andrea Palladio, the church, celebrated for its classically-inspired temple façade, houses several late works of Jacopo Tintoretto, including his final treatment of The Last Supper. The campanile, or bell tower, reflects Giovanni Antonio Scalfarrotto’s early eighteenth-century design. Benedetto Buratti rebuilt the structure that stands today in 1791. The composition is a close adaptation of a mezzotint by Bernhard Vogel, a draughtsman and engraver from Nuremberg, who produced prints after several of the Swede’s most successful vedute.