A Venetian capriccio, a palace with a grand staircase seen through an arch, a ruined domed anteroom on the left

Details

Francesco Guardi (Venice 1712-1793)
A Venetian capriccio, a palace with a grand staircase seen through an arch, a ruined domed anteroom on the left
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
9½ x 7 3/8 in. (23.5 x 18.6 cm.)
architectural sketches on the verso show through to the recto

Provenance

W. Mayor (L. 2799).
J.P. Heseltine.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 25 February 1948, lot 88, illustrated (£540 to Hardy [Hatvany]).
Baron Paul Hatvany; Christie's, London, 24 June 1980, lot 38, where acquired by the father of the present owner.

Literature

A Brief Chronological Description of a collection of Original Drawings and Sketches by the Old Masters... formed by the late Mr William Mayor, London, 1875, p. 60, no. 270 ('Francesco Guardi. Ruined Buildings and Figures. On the right of the view is a palace, the ascent to which is by a grand flight of steps, like the Scala at Venice. Other buildings adjoining this may be seen through the ruins of an arch, and a small building attached to it with a dome. Two Venetian poles are raised in the background, and figures are introduced.').
J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Francesco Guardi, London, 1951, p. 75, no. 62.
A. Morassi, Disegni Veneti del Settecento nella collezione Paul Wallraf, exhib. cat., Venice, Fondazione Cini, 1959, under no. 23.
M. Levey, National Gallery: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London, 1971, pp. 128-29, n. 14.
A. Morassi, Guardi, Venice, 1973, I, p. 497.
A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti i Disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice, 1975, cat. no. 515, fig. 505.

Exhibited

Venice, Fondazione Cini, Canaletto e Guardi, 1962, pp. 59-60, no. 74.

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Lot Essay

Datable to about 1780, the present drawing was hailed as a 'brilliant invention' by James Byam Shaw (op. cit.) who linked it to a picture formerly in the collection of Baron E. de Rothschild (G. Simonson, Francesco Guardi, London, 1904, p. 70). This elegant combination of a dome and arch, with buildings seen beyond, is one that evidently had a particular appeal for Guardi. At least three other drawings are known, very similar in composition to the present work, in which the grand staircase has been replaced by the wall and arched gateway of a palace. The first of these drawings was formerly in the Wallraf Collection, London (Morassi, op. cit., no. 512), and is a preparatory study for a painting in the National Gallery, London (inv. NG 2521.2). The second and third drawings are variations on the Wallraf drawing, respectively in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (inv. I.221) and the Crespi collection, Milan (Morassi, op. cit., nos. 513-514). Morassi who described the drawing as 'molto bello, ricco d'invenzione e schizzato con grande destrezza' also notes a sheet in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachussets, which reproduces the composition of the Rothschild painting and which he considers to be a modern imitation (op. cit., under no. 515).

On the verso of the drawing, just visible through the paper at the lower right corner of the recto, is a fragmentary architectural sketch, which appears to show the end of a covered bridge, very probably the Rialto.
The drawing was formerly in the collection of the Hungarian-born collector Baron Paul Hatvany (1899-1977), who moved to England at the outbreak of World War II. He amassed a distinguished collection of Old Master drawings, pictures and bronzes. On his death, several of his most important paintings were presented to the British nation as a measure of his affection for his adopted country.

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