Shipping in stormy waters

A preparatory sketch for this composition is recorded by Byam Shaw (see J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Francesco Guardi, London, 1951, p. 78, no. 73, illustrated). In several respects this drawing is closer to this painting than to the two versions of this composition by Guardi in the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal and the Bortolotto collection. The design of the stern of the ship far right is different than in the Montreal picture, the crows nests are depicted at sharper angles and the cliffs along the right edge are more prominently displayed in the drawing and this lot. In the drawing the man standing on the rock has his arms outstretched and is trying to catch the rigging: in this picture he has already caught this.