Trabaccoli carrying wood, San Giorgio Maggiore and the Dogana, Venice

Details

Edward William Cooke, R.A. (1811-1880)
Trabaccoli carrying wood, San Giorgio Maggiore and the Dogana, Venice
signed, inscribed and dated 'E. W Cooke A.R.A. Venezia. 1859.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
24½ x 41¼ in. (62.2 x 104.8 cm.)

Provenance

Arthur Burnand.
A.G. Rogers; (+) Christie's, 24 November 1916, lot 20 (95 gns. to Cooling).
With Christopher Wood, London, 1970.
Anon. sale; Sotheby's Belgravia, 27 March 1973, lot 161 (£8,000 to Frost & Reed).
Anon. sale; Sotheby's Belgravia, 18 March 1980, lot 9 (£10,000).

Literature

Art Journal, 1859, p. 166.
J. Munday, Edward William Cooke - A Man of His Time, 1996, p. 191 (pl. 130, illustrated), p. 351, no. 58/21.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1859, no. 262, as 'Venice'.

Lot Essay

Cooke was inspired here by the wide variety of sailing craft in Venice. In this painting he depicts the bulky carriers that imported fuel into the city, here moored near the Dogana, or Customs House. The Art Journal of 1859 commented: 'In all that appertains to effect, colour and the fulness of the composition, this picture resembles those that have preceeded it, but in manipulation it is manifestly different, being, in comparison with other Venetian subjects, but as a sketch.' John Munday suggests that the critic refers to the painting as a sketch owing to various thinly painted passages, perhaps believing that larger oils should carry a more fulsome amount of paint.

We are grateful to John Munday for his help in preparing this entry.

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