Canaletto

Oil on canvas, laid on panel. 

27.9 x 37.3 cm (11 x 14 ⅝ in.)

Sold to a Private Collection.

PROVENANCE: Jacob Polackh (according to Kozakiewicz, see Literature); Consul Eduard Friedrich Weber, Hamburg, by whom brought in Munich in 1878 (as by Guardi), his posthumous sale, Berlin, Lepke, 20-22 Bebruary 1912, lot 172 (as by Bellotto); Private collection, England; With Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1950 (stock numbers: 14318 and 14319); From whom purchased by Lady Seymour Lloyd, London, March 1951; Thence by descent to her grand-daughter, Mrs Charles Plouviez, London, by whom sold, London, Christie’s, 10 April 1987, lot 59; Where acquired by Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London; Private collection, acquired from above, 1988.

LITERATURE: F. Harck, ‘Quadri di maestri italiani nelle Gallerie private di Germania, III. La Galleria Weber di Amburgo’, in Archivio Storico dell’Arte, IV, 1891, p. 89 (as by Bellotto);W.G. Constable, Canaletto Giovanni Anotonio Canal 1697-1768, London 1962, [and subsequent editions, revised by J.G. Links], vol.I, pls. 25,36; vol.II, nos. 75, 157, reproduced;L. Puppi, L’Opera completa del Canaletto, Milan 1968, nos.188 and 189A, ill.;S.Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London 1972, vol. II, p. 420, no. Z113 (as whereabouts and appearance unknown);J.G. Links, Canaletto. The Complete Paintings, London 1981, p. 30, under no. 74;A. Mariuz, Canaletto: Una Venezia immaginaria, Milan 1985, vol. II, p. 649, nos. P303 and P304 reproduced;R. Merrington, in Agnew’s 1982-1992, London 1992, p. 84, illustrated in colour.

EXHIBITED: London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Summer exhibition, June-July 1950, nos. 32 and 34.King’s Lynn, Guildhall of Saint George, Exhibition of Venetian Pictures from the 14^th to the 18^th Century, 25 July -8 August 1959, nos. 27 and 28.

Canaletto, a native Venetian, was proud to belong to a family of cittadini originari, which entitled him to use a coat of arms. It appears that his only training as a painter came from working alongside his father who produced stage-scenery. Whilst in Rome in the capacity of scenographer, Canaletto is said to have developed ambitions to become a view painter and in 1720 he was accepted into the guild of painters in Venice. Whilst painting initially in the manner of Marco Ricci, he quickly developed his own style and by 1723 was signing works of an inventive nature and high quality, such as the pair of Capricci for the Villa Giovanelli. He ceased making imaginary views immediately after this and only returned to the genre in the 1740s. Though his first clients were Italians, already by the second half of the 1720s, he had adapted his manner to suit the appetites of eager visitors to Venice, particularly the British, producing grand representations of Venetian civic ceremonies as well as smaller, more transportable views and from the mid 1720s the fourteen famous canvases painted for the English Consul, Joseph Smith. This series was engraved by Antonio Visentini and its publication in 1735 as Prospectus Magni Canalis Ventiarum increased Canaletto’s fame greatly. Despite his ambition for success, Canaletto appears to have been difficult to deal with and dilatory in executing some of his commissions. In the period around 1740, the views of Venice became less straightforwardly celebratory; some, such as the Grand Canal with San Simeone Piccolo and the Scalzi, now in the National Gallery in London, have a wintry light and a considerably darker palette. By this time, Canaletto’s nephew, Bernardo Bellotto, began to emerge as an artist in his own right, Canaletto signed many of his own pictures from this period, which was not a constant practice and began to diversify in both his subject matter and medium, taking up etching for the first time. In 1746, he moved to England where he remained for nine years, other than an eight-month return to Venice during 1750-1. Although mainly occupied with painting English views for a rapidly enthusiastic English audience, he was perfectly able to produce Venetian views as well from the confines of his studio and conversely during his visit home, he painted a pair of large views of London for the possibly home-sick Consul Smith. Returning to Venice permanently, Canaletto re-worked familiar scenes, but this time, in an extremely stylised manner. He continued to experiment in this vein until the end, using wide-angled views and producing playfully abstract capriccios. The English years of success had given him enough profit to buy a property on the Zattere, which he bequeathed to his three sisters, but the difficulties inherent in an artist’s career, even such a productive and applauded one, are evident in his estate which was otherwise meagre. He was elected to the Venetian Academy only in 1763 and made prior of the Collegio di Pittori in 1766, only two years before his death.

These two boldly painted views have the exceptional confidence and extraordinary verisimilitude evident in Canaletto’s most characteristic work. It is, therefore, all the more surprising that, during the late 19^th century they were considered to be by, first Guardi, and then Bellotto, despite the Quay of the Dogana bearing an 18^th century label inscribed: Canaletto. fe.

The two views are seen close up; in the Piazzetta view, the strong, morning sunlight casts long shadows stretching back from figures and architecture. Canaletto depicts the lion of St Mark from behind, with the outstretched wings creating an illusion that it is about to leap down from the column; figures converse in the immediate foreground; the lagoon is full of boats; small details such as the scattering of red hats lead the eye through the open loggia of the doge’s palace to the long stretch of palaces along the riva degli Schiavone. The dogana is seen as if from a gondola; again the light comes from the south-east. One figure warms himself against a column of the portico, two others converse on the paving; the brilliant red and gold of a boat’s awning ripples, creating a strong diagonal against the linearity of other elements: the masts, columns and mooring posts and the spire on the dome of the Redentore church on the Giudecca. The composition of the latter work is similar to a larger painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. No. GG 6631), generally dated to circa 1724-30 but the angle of the view is not the same and there are many differences in detail.

In terms of style, and the particularly immediate nature of the execution, these works have the quality of plein air paintings, although minor inaccuracies in topographical detail, such as in the portico of the dogana, suggest otherwise² and such suppositions are in any case impossible to prove. It is this immediacy and naturalness, however, which probably confused the 19^th century owners. No confirmed instance of en plein air painting is known in Canaletto’s oeuvre nor are there descriptions of him working in this manner but, in the case of this pair, the small scale, vividly lifelike atmosphere and as-if-seated viewpoint all contribute to the sense that these may be rare examples of the practice. When Constable saw the pictures in 1950, he described them as being painted on panel. In fact they have a more unusual support being on canvas, laid down prior to execution, onto a soft wood backing, probably pine. It is an obvious conjecture to imagine that this support, otherwise unique in Canaletto’s work, is eminently practical for plein air painting being light but solid. 

Various datings have been suggested for the pair, ranging from Puppi’s belief that they belong to the early 1740s to Mariuz’s that they could have been done from around 1731 onwards. More recently, Charles Beddington has proposed that they were painted even earlier, sometime in the late 1720s³, which would put them in the same period as the interesting group of small views on copper most probably done through the mediation of Joseph Smith for the tourist trade, of which nine examples survive.⁴ This would be a suitably experimental moment, during which Canaletto might easily have tried out different materials and methods using his increasingly virtuoso style.

1. For an analysis of Canaletto’s painting technique, see Viola Permberton Pigott, ‘The Development of Canaletto’s Painting Technique’, in Canaletto, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1989, pp. 53-62.

2. Constable noted this but also states that the lion of St. Mark is facing the wrong way, which is in fact not the case. (see Constable, op. cit., p. 261).

3. See catalogue entry, sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 28.1.2010, lot 229.

4. See, Katherine Baetjer and J.G Links, Canaletto, exhibition catalogue, op. cit., 1989, cats. 14-21.