View of the Giudecca and the Church of Santa Marta, Venice
Order image © All images subject to copyright
Small painting on canvas depicting an island in the Venetian lagoon, most probably that of the Giudecca with the Church of Santa Marta. On the right, there is the coastline, with many piers, boats and men. Onshore, there is an ascending row of houses culminating with a church and bell tower. The sun hits a cloud in the centre of the sky.
Six small paintings of the Venetian islands by Francesco Guardi and probably also his son are at Waddesdon. This scene appears to be loosely based on the island of the Giudecca and the Church of Santa Marta, which was later destroyed. There are several other very similar canvases attributed to Guardi, including one in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection in Lisbon.
This is probably a late work by Francesco Guardi, though it has been argued recently that the painting is actually by Guardi's son Giacomo, painted with his father's supervision. The two worked together at the end of Francesco's life making it difficult to firmly attribute paintings from this period.
Francesco came from a successful family of artists who settled in Venice around 1700. From the 1750s on, he specialised in painting views known in Italian as 'vedute'. They were very popular with foreign tourists. Towards the end of his career, Francesco was assisted by his younger brother, Nicolò, and his son Giacomo. Giacomo produced many small drawings of Venetian views, some copied from his father's work. After Francesco's death, Giacomo sold his father's remaining paintings, particularly to foreigners who visited Venice as part of the Grand Tour. Giacomo also finished some of the paintings himself which were probably still sold as by Francesco. The recent observation that this painting shows the hand of Giacomo may mean that it was produced in one of these ways.
The six paintings at Waddesdon are on both canvas and panel, although they most probably were always part of the same series (see also acc. nos 900, 901, 902, 3690, 3624). They were amongst a set of twelve paintings in the G. A. F. Bentinck-Cavendish sale in July 1891. The pictures missing at Waddesdon from this series are the Islands of Santa Maria, San Secondo, Madonna del Rosario, Lazzaretto Vecchio, Sant'Andrea del Lido, and one of the two 'Views of the outskirts of the Town'. There are a similar set of twelve paintings of the Venetian lagoon islands in the Budapest Museum that are probably also by Giacomo Guardi.
Francesco based his compositions on other artist's prints and paintings, including Canaletto (1697-1768). He developed a looser and freer style of painting than his contemporary. He often took liberties with the scenes he represented, as in this case. His pictures are not accurately datable from the buildings they show. The six paintings at Waddesdon appear to be modelled on the engravings in Antonio Visentini's 'Isolario Veneto', published in 1777.
There is a version of the painting with the same layout of buildings on the right, but with a different distribution of boats, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (MCG Inv. 122). This version is also more of an impression of the buildings, rather than being an accurate representation (see Rodolfo Pallucchini; Colecção Calouste Gulbenkian: Francesco Guardi; Lisbon; 1965, no. 13). Several other paintings of the Giudecca by Francesco or Giacomo Guardi show slightly different perspectives and arrangements of buildings.
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
283 x 349 x 31
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Marks
374e
Stamp
verso, on press over canvas
Labels
[S?].629
Label
verso, on press over canvas, 54 x 33 mm with double rule border
Provenance
- Owned by George Cavendish-Bentinck (b.1821, d.1891); sold as part of lot 661 'A set of twelve pictures of the Islands of the Lagune, Venice' at Christie's London, G.A.F. Cavendish-Bentinck sale, 11 July 1890; bought from his sale by Martin Colnaghi, b.1821, d.1908; acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922) before 1906; inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); accepted by the Treasury Solicitor in lieu of taxes on the Estate of Mr James de Rothschild in 1963; given to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1990.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Waddesdon Manor, 1990
Bibliography
- George A. Simonson; Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793; London; Metheun; 1904; p. 98; nos 271-274
- Michael Levey, French and Italian Paintings at Waddesdon, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 57-66; p. 61; as by Francesco Guardi
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 322-323, cat. no. 161, ill.; as 'View of one of the Venetian Islands'
- Antonio Morassi; Guardi - L'Opera Completa; 3 vols; Venice; Electa; 1993; vol. 1, pp. 289, 436; as by Giacomo Guardi with supervision of Francesco Guardi, dated to 1780s
Related files
- http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/exposicoes/gaudi/5_i.asp [accessed 2 July 2011, on related painting in Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation]
- http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/exposicoes/gaudi/5_i.asp [accessed 2 July 2011, on related painting in Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation]
Subjects
- Objects/Industrial & Maritime Equipment/Boat
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Marine (The Sea)
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Water
- Architecture/Buildings/Religious
- Architecture/Buildings/Domestic
- Architecture/Town or Village Scape
- Figures/Group
- Figures/Male
- Architecture/Buildings - Specific/Church of Santa Marta, Venice
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Clouds