Title page of the Vedute
| Reference: | S30093 |
| Author | Giovanni Antonio Canal detto CANALETTO |
| Year: | 1740 ca. |
| Measures: | 422 x 290 mm |
€2,250.00
| Reference: | S30093 |
| Author | Giovanni Antonio Canal detto CANALETTO |
| Year: | 1740 ca. |
| Measures: | 422 x 290 mm |
€2,250.00
Description
Etching, circa 1740, signed at the bottom center. Excellent impression, of the second state of two, with the title written, printed on contemporary laid paper "three moons" watermark (Bromberg 11), trimmed to the platemark, small restoration to the upper-right corner, otherwise excellent conditions.
The first state of this title is known in a single copy with a manuscript dedication of Canaletto's. It is part of an album containing the Canaletto engravings that belonged to Anton Maria Zanetti, now preserved at the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin. In the same museum is also preserved a brown ink drawing that represents a fantastic composition, and which can be regarded as the first idea for this title page.
The work belongs to the Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate... series of etchings dedicated to the consul and friend Joseph Smith, whose execution goes from about 1740 to 1744. It is part of the artistic development of Canaletto not as a marginal parenthesis, but as an essential moment of some stylistic problems, which will find their full realization in the first masterpieces executed in his English stay.
The series groups together sheets that evoke an itinerary that starting from the lagoon, that is from Marghera, passing through Mestre, goes up the course of the Brenta to Padua, not only staged in the cosmorama of Prà della Valle but in a view that marks the passage between the reality of places and the fantasy of caprice. If the Portico with the lantern, undoubtedly one of the highest proofs of Canaletto's engraving art, is a view of full fantasy, the etching with the so-called House of 1741, rejoined with the House of the colonnade, is the evocation of a city, which even though it lacks precise topographical references, is imbued with Venetian atmosphere.
Giovanni Antonio Canal called Canaletto (Venice 17 October 1697 - Venice 19 April 1768)) was the most illustrious protagonist of the Venetian vedutismo of the eighteenth century. Thanks to his contacts with English amateurs and collectors travelling to Venice or living in the lagoon city, Canaletto enjoyed great notoriety in England among the highest aristocracy and even the royal family. Around 1730 his exclusive agent was an Englishman, the consul Joseph Smith: having become a picture dealer, he worked with skill and tenacity to introduce his protégé into the British market of works of art, the most flourishing at the time. Owner of a large workshop and flanked by countless assistants, Canaletto is an artist and a skilled entrepreneur.
In Canaletto's works the lagoon city was depicted with great objectivity: his compositions were always rigorously studied through numerous preparatory drawings, taken directly from life. The "veduta" was one of the most characteristic genres of eighteenth-century painting. It differs from landscape (another genre widespread in the eighteenth century) for the objective representation of places and architecture, achieved through a well-studied perspective. Venice was the center of greater production of "views", with some very important personalities.
Magnificent example.
Bibliografia
Bromberg p. 37, 1; Succi, Da Carlevaris ai Tiepolo, p. 97, 67.
Giovanni Antonio Canal detto CANALETTO (Venezia 1697 – 1768)
|
Better known as Canaletto, was a Venetian artist famous for his landscapes or vedute of Venice. They served as the equivalent of painted postcards for those able to afford the price. He was a son of a painter Bernardo Canal, hence his nickname Canaletto.
He served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother, and began his career as a theatrical scene painter, which was his father's occupation. Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini and began painting in his famous topographical style after a visit to Rome in 1719. His first known signed and dated work is Architectural Capriccio (1723, Milan, in a private collection). One of his best pieces is The Stonemason's Yard (1729, London, the National Gallery) which depicts a humble, working area of the city. Canaletto, however, is better known for his grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace.
Many of Canaletto's early works, contrary to the custom of the time, were painted 'from nature' (rather than from sketches and studies of the scene taken back to be worked on in the artist's studio). Some of his later works do revert to this custom, hinted at by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour - an effect produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects.
Many of his pictures were sold to Englishmen on their Grand Tour, most notably the merchant Joseph Smith (who was later appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744). It was Smith who acted as an agent for Canaletto, helping him to sell his paintings to other Englishmen. In the 1740s Canaletto's market was disrupted when the War of the Austrian Succession led to a reduction in the number of British visitors to Venice. Smith also arranged for the publication of a series of etchings of capriccios, but the returns were not high enough, and in 1746 Canaletto moved to London, to be closer to his market.
He remained in England until 1755, producing views of London and of his patrons' castles and houses. Overall this period was not satisfactory, partly due to dissatisfaction with the declining quality of Canaletto's work. Canaletto's work began to suffer from repetitiveness, losing its traditional fluidity, and became mechanical to the point that the English art critic George Vertue suggested that the man painting under the name 'Canaletto' was an imposter. Canaletto gave public demostrations of his work to refute this claim; however, his reputation never fully recovered in his lifetime.
After his return to Venice Canaletto was elected to the Venetian Academy in 1763. He continued to paint until his death in 1768. In his later years he often worked from old sketches, but he sometimes produced surprising new compostions. He was willing to make subtle alternations to topography for artistic effect.
|
Giovanni Antonio Canal detto CANALETTO (Venezia 1697 – 1768)
|
Better known as Canaletto, was a Venetian artist famous for his landscapes or vedute of Venice. They served as the equivalent of painted postcards for those able to afford the price. He was a son of a painter Bernardo Canal, hence his nickname Canaletto.
He served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother, and began his career as a theatrical scene painter, which was his father's occupation. Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini and began painting in his famous topographical style after a visit to Rome in 1719. His first known signed and dated work is Architectural Capriccio (1723, Milan, in a private collection). One of his best pieces is The Stonemason's Yard (1729, London, the National Gallery) which depicts a humble, working area of the city. Canaletto, however, is better known for his grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace.
Many of Canaletto's early works, contrary to the custom of the time, were painted 'from nature' (rather than from sketches and studies of the scene taken back to be worked on in the artist's studio). Some of his later works do revert to this custom, hinted at by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour - an effect produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects.
Many of his pictures were sold to Englishmen on their Grand Tour, most notably the merchant Joseph Smith (who was later appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744). It was Smith who acted as an agent for Canaletto, helping him to sell his paintings to other Englishmen. In the 1740s Canaletto's market was disrupted when the War of the Austrian Succession led to a reduction in the number of British visitors to Venice. Smith also arranged for the publication of a series of etchings of capriccios, but the returns were not high enough, and in 1746 Canaletto moved to London, to be closer to his market.
He remained in England until 1755, producing views of London and of his patrons' castles and houses. Overall this period was not satisfactory, partly due to dissatisfaction with the declining quality of Canaletto's work. Canaletto's work began to suffer from repetitiveness, losing its traditional fluidity, and became mechanical to the point that the English art critic George Vertue suggested that the man painting under the name 'Canaletto' was an imposter. Canaletto gave public demostrations of his work to refute this claim; however, his reputation never fully recovered in his lifetime.
After his return to Venice Canaletto was elected to the Venetian Academy in 1763. He continued to paint until his death in 1768. In his later years he often worked from old sketches, but he sometimes produced surprising new compostions. He was willing to make subtle alternations to topography for artistic effect.
|