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Lot Essay
Toledano (oc. cit. was the first attribute this picture to Marieschi in his monograph on the artist. Montecuccoli degli Erri and Pedrocco pointed out that the figures on the gondola, and possibly those on the Fondamenta del Ferro, are painted by Gaspare Diziani (loc. cit.). The composition is close to one of the very few signed works by the artist, in the City Art Gallery, Bristol (Toledano, .op. cit., 1988, p. 79, no. V.9.1). However, Dr. Mario Succi believes it to be by Albotto, Marieschi's most gifted pupil who was to marry his widow.
Ockham Park was acquired in the early 1700s by Peter King, 1st Baron King (1669-1734), who engaged in major renovations to the original Jacobean house. A serious fire in 1948 destroyed everything except for the orangery, stables, kitchen wing, and a solitary Italianate tower.
The Lovelace collection included a remarkable group of pictures by Venetian view painters, notably the capricci of Canaletto's Venetian period (W.G. Constable, revised by J. Links, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1687-1768, 1976, II, nos. 367, 473-5 and 478, with the associated Bucintoro, Constable, no. 343) five of which were memorably reunited in New York in 1989 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Canaletto, nos. 75-9). These were formerly thought to have been commissioned by the 3rd or 4th Lords King, although, as F. Russell argues ('A Suffusion of Light', Country Life, CLXXXVII, 14 October 1993, p. 64), their younger brother Thomas, 5th Baron King (1712-178), whose wife was a considerable heiress and who alone of the brothers was educated at Eton - the chapel of which appears in one of the capricci (Constable and Links, no. 77) - is likely to have ordered the pictures for his London house.
The two Bellottos, The Porto Santo Spirito, Rome and The Arch of Titus, Rome, sold from the Lovelace collection, in these Rooms, 10 December 1993, lot 60, may also have been acquired by the 5th Baron, who almost certainly was the original purchaser of a notable pair of Vernets of 1767 and 1770 sold in these Rooms, 10th December 1993 lot 55. It seems highly probable that he also acquired this work by Marieschi which, if it was ordered on his behalf from the artist, may have been one of his earliest acquisitions.
Ockham Park was acquired in the early 1700s by Peter King, 1st Baron King (1669-1734), who engaged in major renovations to the original Jacobean house. A serious fire in 1948 destroyed everything except for the orangery, stables, kitchen wing, and a solitary Italianate tower.
The Lovelace collection included a remarkable group of pictures by Venetian view painters, notably the capricci of Canaletto's Venetian period (W.G. Constable, revised by J. Links, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1687-1768, 1976, II, nos. 367, 473-5 and 478, with the associated Bucintoro, Constable, no. 343) five of which were memorably reunited in New York in 1989 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Canaletto, nos. 75-9). These were formerly thought to have been commissioned by the 3rd or 4th Lords King, although, as F. Russell argues ('A Suffusion of Light', Country Life, CLXXXVII, 14 October 1993, p. 64), their younger brother Thomas, 5th Baron King (1712-178), whose wife was a considerable heiress and who alone of the brothers was educated at Eton - the chapel of which appears in one of the capricci (Constable and Links, no. 77) - is likely to have ordered the pictures for his London house.
The two Bellottos, The Porto Santo Spirito, Rome and The Arch of Titus, Rome, sold from the Lovelace collection, in these Rooms, 10 December 1993, lot 60, may also have been acquired by the 5th Baron, who almost certainly was the original purchaser of a notable pair of Vernets of 1767 and 1770 sold in these Rooms, 10th December 1993 lot 55. It seems highly probable that he also acquired this work by Marieschi which, if it was ordered on his behalf from the artist, may have been one of his earliest acquisitions.