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Lot Essay
Streeton left Australia for Europe in 1897 although he continued to send work back home and to exhibit regularly in Australia. Indeed, it was the financial success of an Australian exhibition held in 1907 that enabled Streeton to marry violinist Nora Clench on 11 January 1908. The couple honeymooned in Venice for a month, staying at the Palazzo di Biasi Zattere.
Painting Venice at the same time as French artist Claude Monet, Streeton responded to the light and aqueous beauty of Venice as so many artists before him had done, with a contemporary reviewer drawing a favourable comparison:
"... the fact remains that Mr Streeton has caught the opalescence and glitter of the Venetian canals and marble palaces in moments of bright sunshine as few artists have done before him... What is more the Australian painter has not confined himself to a mere architectural record, but makes us feel that Venice has retained in our days a certain something of the spirit which in the eighteenth century made it the pleasure ground of Europe..." (Observer, London, April 1909, cited in A Galbally, Arthur Streeton, Melbourne, 1969, p.56)
The Streetons returned to London in June but Streeton revisited Venice in September of that same year. He remained in Venice until 18 October, painting and sketching in oil, watercolour and pencil. More than eighty paintings of Venice are listed in the 1936 Arthur STreeton Catalogue. As was his practice, he completed many of the works in his London studio before sending them off to be exhibited. While a number of the paintings were exhibited in London, the majority of the works were first shown in Melbourne at an immensely successful exhibition titled Arthur Streeton's Venice which was held at the Guildhall in July 1909.
In a discussion of Streeton's Venetian paintings, Galbally commented on "... the vigour of Streeton's vision and his dramatic pictorial use of light. In this series he looks at the ancient city in terms of masses and interprets it in the Sargent manner, drawing and modelling with the brush." (Galbally, op.cit, p.56)
The subject of this painting is the magnificent Church of Santa Maria della Salute, which is situated on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from St Mark's square, between the Grand Canal and Canale delle Zattere. Designed by the architect Baldassare Longhena, it was completed in 1682 and is considered to be a masterpiece of the Venetian baroque. Built as an expression of gratitude for the end of the plague, which killed nearly one third of Venice's citizens in 1630, the church has long been a favourite subject for artists and had previously been depicted by Sargent, Turner and other painters who influenced Streeton.
A number of views of La Salute by Streeton are held in public collections including a Salute from Riva Schiavoni which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia and La Salute (Grey) which is in the collection of the Geelong Art Gallery.
Painting Venice at the same time as French artist Claude Monet, Streeton responded to the light and aqueous beauty of Venice as so many artists before him had done, with a contemporary reviewer drawing a favourable comparison:
"... the fact remains that Mr Streeton has caught the opalescence and glitter of the Venetian canals and marble palaces in moments of bright sunshine as few artists have done before him... What is more the Australian painter has not confined himself to a mere architectural record, but makes us feel that Venice has retained in our days a certain something of the spirit which in the eighteenth century made it the pleasure ground of Europe..." (Observer, London, April 1909, cited in A Galbally, Arthur Streeton, Melbourne, 1969, p.56)
The Streetons returned to London in June but Streeton revisited Venice in September of that same year. He remained in Venice until 18 October, painting and sketching in oil, watercolour and pencil. More than eighty paintings of Venice are listed in the 1936 Arthur STreeton Catalogue. As was his practice, he completed many of the works in his London studio before sending them off to be exhibited. While a number of the paintings were exhibited in London, the majority of the works were first shown in Melbourne at an immensely successful exhibition titled Arthur Streeton's Venice which was held at the Guildhall in July 1909.
In a discussion of Streeton's Venetian paintings, Galbally commented on "... the vigour of Streeton's vision and his dramatic pictorial use of light. In this series he looks at the ancient city in terms of masses and interprets it in the Sargent manner, drawing and modelling with the brush." (Galbally, op.cit, p.56)
The subject of this painting is the magnificent Church of Santa Maria della Salute, which is situated on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from St Mark's square, between the Grand Canal and Canale delle Zattere. Designed by the architect Baldassare Longhena, it was completed in 1682 and is considered to be a masterpiece of the Venetian baroque. Built as an expression of gratitude for the end of the plague, which killed nearly one third of Venice's citizens in 1630, the church has long been a favourite subject for artists and had previously been depicted by Sargent, Turner and other painters who influenced Streeton.
A number of views of La Salute by Streeton are held in public collections including a Salute from Riva Schiavoni which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia and La Salute (Grey) which is in the collection of the Geelong Art Gallery.