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Lot Essay
This small canvas, whose visible tacking edges show it to be uncut, is perhaps a unique record of the Caffè Florian as it was in the eighteenth century, for, although other views by both Canaletto and Guardi record the colonnaded south side of St. Mark's Square, none depict the celebrated Caffè Florian itself.
The Caffè Florian occupying rooms under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove was opened in 1770 by Floriano Francesconi under the name of Venezia Trionfante. However, the name of its original owner was the name that survived and it was to become both a meeting place of luminaries and a symbol of Venice. The playwright, Carlo Goldoni, is said to have entered the caffè as a boy in 1721. It was frequented by the diarist Casanova and the sculptor Canova, who it is said carved a model of the gout-stricken Floriano's foot to save him the pain of being measured for a new pair of shoes. In the nineteenth century, Florian's continued to attract Venice's most distinguished visitors including Lord Byron, Marcel Proust and Henry James who described it in the Aspen Papers. During the Austrian occupation of Venice (1854) while Quadri's on the other side of the square was patronised by Austrians, Florian's remained a bastion of Venetian patriots. The caffé was remodelled in 1858 by Ludovico Cadorin, and though the original architectural elements are recognisable in this picture, the eighteenth-century interior decorations have long since been replaced.
The authorship of this canvas remains uncertain. It was attributed to Francesco Guardi by Morassi (op. cit.), on the basis of a photograph, who linked it to an early series of interiors by Guardi including the Ridotto (op.cit., no. 233) in the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice and the Parlatorio delle Monache (op.cit., no. 232) both of which he dated to the 1740s, when Francesco was still in Gian Antonio's workshop. This painting has none of the flickering, featherly brushstrokes which characterize the Ca' Rezzonico pictures. Its architectural specificity suggests, however, that the author is a painter of vedute and the smooth handling of paint and the drawing of the figures - notably the serving man on the right - indicate the influence of Canaletto. This does not necessarily rule out Guardi as author; both Morassi and Byam Shaw (see note to lot 79) conjecture that after leaving his brother's studio, Francesco Guardi worked with Canaletto some time after the latter's return from England in 1756.
The Caffè Florian occupying rooms under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove was opened in 1770 by Floriano Francesconi under the name of Venezia Trionfante. However, the name of its original owner was the name that survived and it was to become both a meeting place of luminaries and a symbol of Venice. The playwright, Carlo Goldoni, is said to have entered the caffè as a boy in 1721. It was frequented by the diarist Casanova and the sculptor Canova, who it is said carved a model of the gout-stricken Floriano's foot to save him the pain of being measured for a new pair of shoes. In the nineteenth century, Florian's continued to attract Venice's most distinguished visitors including Lord Byron, Marcel Proust and Henry James who described it in the Aspen Papers. During the Austrian occupation of Venice (1854) while Quadri's on the other side of the square was patronised by Austrians, Florian's remained a bastion of Venetian patriots. The caffé was remodelled in 1858 by Ludovico Cadorin, and though the original architectural elements are recognisable in this picture, the eighteenth-century interior decorations have long since been replaced.
The authorship of this canvas remains uncertain. It was attributed to Francesco Guardi by Morassi (op. cit.), on the basis of a photograph, who linked it to an early series of interiors by Guardi including the Ridotto (op.cit., no. 233) in the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice and the Parlatorio delle Monache (op.cit., no. 232) both of which he dated to the 1740s, when Francesco was still in Gian Antonio's workshop. This painting has none of the flickering, featherly brushstrokes which characterize the Ca' Rezzonico pictures. Its architectural specificity suggests, however, that the author is a painter of vedute and the smooth handling of paint and the drawing of the figures - notably the serving man on the right - indicate the influence of Canaletto. This does not necessarily rule out Guardi as author; both Morassi and Byam Shaw (see note to lot 79) conjecture that after leaving his brother's studio, Francesco Guardi worked with Canaletto some time after the latter's return from England in 1756.