Lot Essay
The present set of etchings represents the complete published oeuvre by Canaletto, and with 31 of the 34 etchings, almost the artist's entire graphic output. Bromberg 17 and 35 are known only in unique impressions from the Smith Collection (Royal Library, Windsor), and Bromberg 34 in two impressions (Royal Library, Windsor and Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin). Bromberg 12 (known in only six impressions, and never issued in the set) is the undivided plate for Bromberg 13 and 14 which are included in this series.
It is probable that Canaletto first began to etch in about 1735. The House with the Inscription (Br. 13) is the only dated print of the series, and establishes the artist at the height of his etching career in 1741. A terminus quod quem publication date is established by the title plate (Br. 1), with its dedication to 'Giuseppe Smith Console di S. M. Britannica', who received the position in June 1744. As Canaletto departed for England in 1746, the set would have been published between these dates.
Joseph Smith was Canaletto's greatest patron from 1730 onwards. The artist's prolific production of painted views for the English tourist - masterminded by Smith in the 1730s - came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, which dramatically reduced the flow of visitors to Venice. Finding himself with a shortage of work, the artist was undoubtedly encouraged by Smith to publish his etchings with a view to commercial production. Smith had a long standing interest in printmaking and was the owner of the publishing house La Stamperia Pasquali who had published the Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetarium by A. Visentini after the Canaletto paintings in his own collection.
Through etching Canaletto was to find a new, spontaneous means of self-expression, liberated from the restraints and established formulae of the conventional view painting. The etchings are not concerned with the famous sights of Venice, but present instead a much more personal artistic vision. The artist's paintings from 1740 underwent a parallel transformation. The capriccio, or veduta ideata, becomes a recurrent theme in both media; for example in the magnificent etching View of a Town on a Riverbank (Br. 9) which relates closely to the painting Veduta del Brento, presso Padova (Constable & Links 377). A number of the most important etchings, La Torre di Malguera, Mestre, Al Dolo, and S. Giustina in Prà della Valle and Prà della Valle (Br. 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8) all find their painted counterparts, generally executed at a later date (C. & L. 369, 370, 372 and 376). The series of etchings became an important compositional source for the artist's later works.
It appears likely that the copper plates remained in the hands of Smith's publishing house until shortly after his death in 1770. Smith's widow possibly sold them herself to Giuseppe Remondini & Figli, the largest print publishing house in Italy at the time. Remondini certainly had them in his possession by 1772, when the set made its first appearance in his catalogue.
The very fine and uniform quality of impressions of the present set suggests that it is from an early Remondini edition, after he added the letters and numbers to ten of the plates for his editions dating from 1778. The set appeared for the last time in Remondini's catalogue of 1817. Later Remondini impressions of the series, however, show extensive wear.
The Vedute altre prese da i Luoghi altre ideate ranks along with Tiepolo's Capricci and Piranesi's Vedute di Roma and Carceri as one of the masterpieces to emerge from the greatest period of Italian etching.
It is probable that Canaletto first began to etch in about 1735. The House with the Inscription (Br. 13) is the only dated print of the series, and establishes the artist at the height of his etching career in 1741. A terminus quod quem publication date is established by the title plate (Br. 1), with its dedication to 'Giuseppe Smith Console di S. M. Britannica', who received the position in June 1744. As Canaletto departed for England in 1746, the set would have been published between these dates.
Joseph Smith was Canaletto's greatest patron from 1730 onwards. The artist's prolific production of painted views for the English tourist - masterminded by Smith in the 1730s - came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, which dramatically reduced the flow of visitors to Venice. Finding himself with a shortage of work, the artist was undoubtedly encouraged by Smith to publish his etchings with a view to commercial production. Smith had a long standing interest in printmaking and was the owner of the publishing house La Stamperia Pasquali who had published the Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetarium by A. Visentini after the Canaletto paintings in his own collection.
Through etching Canaletto was to find a new, spontaneous means of self-expression, liberated from the restraints and established formulae of the conventional view painting. The etchings are not concerned with the famous sights of Venice, but present instead a much more personal artistic vision. The artist's paintings from 1740 underwent a parallel transformation. The capriccio, or veduta ideata, becomes a recurrent theme in both media; for example in the magnificent etching View of a Town on a Riverbank (Br. 9) which relates closely to the painting Veduta del Brento, presso Padova (Constable & Links 377). A number of the most important etchings, La Torre di Malguera, Mestre, Al Dolo, and S. Giustina in Prà della Valle and Prà della Valle (Br. 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8) all find their painted counterparts, generally executed at a later date (C. & L. 369, 370, 372 and 376). The series of etchings became an important compositional source for the artist's later works.
It appears likely that the copper plates remained in the hands of Smith's publishing house until shortly after his death in 1770. Smith's widow possibly sold them herself to Giuseppe Remondini & Figli, the largest print publishing house in Italy at the time. Remondini certainly had them in his possession by 1772, when the set made its first appearance in his catalogue.
The very fine and uniform quality of impressions of the present set suggests that it is from an early Remondini edition, after he added the letters and numbers to ten of the plates for his editions dating from 1778. The set appeared for the last time in Remondini's catalogue of 1817. Later Remondini impressions of the series, however, show extensive wear.
The Vedute altre prese da i Luoghi altre ideate ranks along with Tiepolo's Capricci and Piranesi's Vedute di Roma and Carceri as one of the masterpieces to emerge from the greatest period of Italian etching.