.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This is one of a small group of views of major public buildings in Venice executed by Canaletto in London, where he arrived in 1746. Although he returned to Venice briefly in 1751, London remained his base until 1755. While he responded in London to the challenge of recording views of the city and the Thames, as well as of a few great houses in the country, he also continued to execute views of his native Venice, his pictures of which had understandably been admired by English connoisseurs since the 1720s. This canvas shows the island monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, a focal point of Venetian topography that was designed by Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Begun in 1566, it was substantially finished by 1576, although the façade that conformed to Palladio's project was only constructed in 1607-11.
Canaletto, like Joseph Smith, his long-term patron, agent and arguably mentor in Venice, certainly knew of the English admiration for the architecture of Palladio, which owed so much to the influence of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753) and had dominated architectural practice in Britain for over a generation. He had, a year or two before moving to London, supplied a series of thirteen overdoors for Smith. These placed major buildings by Palladio and his contemporaries in capriccio settings and were presumably intended for Smith's palace on the Grand Canal. One of the reasons for Canaletto's move in 1746 was a decline in the number of British visitors to Venice, but once in London, as the advertisements he placed for major compositions suggest, patronage was not always immediately forthcoming. This canvas and five related pictures of the same dimensions suggest that Canaletto deliberately sought to exploit the English admiration for Palladio.
As Charles Beddington pointed out in the 2006 catalogue, Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (New Haven, 2006), this picture was originally paired with a pendant of the Redentore (Constable, op. cit., 1962, I, pl. 59; and II, p. 324, no. 317; sold Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 88; fig. 1), Palladio's last great church, begun in 1577 in fulfilment of a vow after Venice's recovery from a serious plague of 1575-7, and completed by 1592. Canaletto painted another pair of the same subjects, once owned by the duc d'Aumale (J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto, London, 1997, pp. 30 and 32, nos. 301 and 318; Beddington, op. cit., pp. 168-9, nos. 56-7). These differ most obviously in the boats and figures: thus a gondola with two liveried gondoliers placed somewhat further to the right replaces the smaller boat seen in this picture, with a boatman trailing a rope into the water. As is invariably the case with his variants of compositions, Canaletto also subtly changed the details of these: the left door of San Giorgio is open in the Aumale picture, in which the sun does not strike the buildings at the far end of the Riva in the dramatic way it does in this canvas. A third view of the Redentore was paired with one of the Prigioni (Constable, op. cit., 1962, nos. 318 and 84; Sotheby's, New York, 1 February 2018, lot 54). Although the Prigioni were designed not by Palladio but by his slightly older contemporary Giovanni Antonio Rusconi (1500⁄5-1578), these had been shown in one of Smith's overdoors, or 'door pieces', which in the list prepared for their sale to King George III, were somewhat misleadingly – as Smith of course knew – catalogued as of the 'principal Buildings of Palladio'. The two pictures were originally owned by one of Canaletto's most assiduous English patrons, Sir Richard Neave (1731-1814), and it may well be that the other pairs were acquired by patrons with city links, whose collections were more liable to be broken up than those formed by landed families.
All six canvases are apparently identical in scale, roughly 47 by 75 centimetres, and on the grey grounds that Canaletto used in London. Their colour is highly keyed, the bright skies setting off the cool Istrian stone of the principal façade, which contrasts with the strong tones of many of the costumes and the red and blue livery of many of the gondoliers. Beddington persuasively dated the Aumale pair to the late 1740s and all six were clearly painted simultaneously.
Canaletto, like Joseph Smith, his long-term patron, agent and arguably mentor in Venice, certainly knew of the English admiration for the architecture of Palladio, which owed so much to the influence of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753) and had dominated architectural practice in Britain for over a generation. He had, a year or two before moving to London, supplied a series of thirteen overdoors for Smith. These placed major buildings by Palladio and his contemporaries in capriccio settings and were presumably intended for Smith's palace on the Grand Canal. One of the reasons for Canaletto's move in 1746 was a decline in the number of British visitors to Venice, but once in London, as the advertisements he placed for major compositions suggest, patronage was not always immediately forthcoming. This canvas and five related pictures of the same dimensions suggest that Canaletto deliberately sought to exploit the English admiration for Palladio.
As Charles Beddington pointed out in the 2006 catalogue, Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (New Haven, 2006), this picture was originally paired with a pendant of the Redentore (Constable, op. cit., 1962, I, pl. 59; and II, p. 324, no. 317; sold Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 88; fig. 1), Palladio's last great church, begun in 1577 in fulfilment of a vow after Venice's recovery from a serious plague of 1575-7, and completed by 1592. Canaletto painted another pair of the same subjects, once owned by the duc d'Aumale (J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto, London, 1997, pp. 30 and 32, nos. 301 and 318; Beddington, op. cit., pp. 168-9, nos. 56-7). These differ most obviously in the boats and figures: thus a gondola with two liveried gondoliers placed somewhat further to the right replaces the smaller boat seen in this picture, with a boatman trailing a rope into the water. As is invariably the case with his variants of compositions, Canaletto also subtly changed the details of these: the left door of San Giorgio is open in the Aumale picture, in which the sun does not strike the buildings at the far end of the Riva in the dramatic way it does in this canvas. A third view of the Redentore was paired with one of the Prigioni (Constable, op. cit., 1962, nos. 318 and 84; Sotheby's, New York, 1 February 2018, lot 54). Although the Prigioni were designed not by Palladio but by his slightly older contemporary Giovanni Antonio Rusconi (1500⁄5-1578), these had been shown in one of Smith's overdoors, or 'door pieces', which in the list prepared for their sale to King George III, were somewhat misleadingly – as Smith of course knew – catalogued as of the 'principal Buildings of Palladio'. The two pictures were originally owned by one of Canaletto's most assiduous English patrons, Sir Richard Neave (1731-1814), and it may well be that the other pairs were acquired by patrons with city links, whose collections were more liable to be broken up than those formed by landed families.
All six canvases are apparently identical in scale, roughly 47 by 75 centimetres, and on the grey grounds that Canaletto used in London. Their colour is highly keyed, the bright skies setting off the cool Istrian stone of the principal façade, which contrasts with the strong tones of many of the costumes and the red and blue livery of many of the gondoliers. Beddington persuasively dated the Aumale pair to the late 1740s and all six were clearly painted simultaneously.