Lot Essay
The present painting is described by Constable (op. cit.) as being painted with a 'blond tone [and] luminous, grey shadows', and he dates it to the 'early thirties', noting that 'the absence of the statue on the quay confirms a date before 1742'. Puppi (op. cit.) dates it to between 1729 and 1730; and Corboz (op. cit.) places it in a grouping of paintings executed between 1726 and 1730.
The present work is a variant of a painting in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, which shows the same site but from a more distant perspective (Constable, op. cit., no. 251).
Constable (ibid.) describes the present painting as the 'companion in size and technique' to a Molo looking West (Liechtenstein Collection, 1927, Inv. no. 204; Constable, no. 91) and a Piazzetta looking South (ibid., no. 60). Two further paintings by Canaletto of similar date, almost identical size, and sharing the same Liechtenstien provenance were formerly in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (ibid., no. 195), until sold, Sotheby's, New York, May 30, 1991, lot 61 ($990,000); and Boston Museum of Fine Arts (ibid., no. 300; and P.C. Sutton, The William Appelton Collidge Collection, 1995, no. 11, pp. 63-5).
The present work is a variant of a painting in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, which shows the same site but from a more distant perspective (Constable, op. cit., no. 251).
Constable (ibid.) describes the present painting as the 'companion in size and technique' to a Molo looking West (Liechtenstein Collection, 1927, Inv. no. 204; Constable, no. 91) and a Piazzetta looking South (ibid., no. 60). Two further paintings by Canaletto of similar date, almost identical size, and sharing the same Liechtenstien provenance were formerly in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (ibid., no. 195), until sold, Sotheby's, New York, May 30, 1991, lot 61 ($990,000); and Boston Museum of Fine Arts (ibid., no. 300; and P.C. Sutton, The William Appelton Collidge Collection, 1995, no. 11, pp. 63-5).