Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice
Francesco Guardiprobably c. 1780
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
For several decades after Canaletto painted his _Quay of the Piazzetta_, Francesco Guardi continued producing picturesque cityscapes for the tourist trade. Although the artist was little-known in his own day, his views of Venice are now highly prized for their atmospheric qualities and broad, sketchy brushwork.
The Rialto Bridge, built in 1592 as the first stone bridge to span the Grand Canal, is the focal point of Guardi's composition, one of several versions of this popular attraction. Lined with market stalls and shops, it formed the hub of an important commercial center. Just beyond the bridge at the right is the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the warehouse of the German merchants -- now a post office -- that became famous in the Renaissance when Giorgione and Titian frescoed its facade.
People poke their heads out of windows and gather on the balconies to watch the spectacle of daily life on the Rialto. The artist must have taken his view from a similar perch, looking down on the bustling scene. Market barges draped in canvas canopies are tied up at the quayside. Energetic gondoliers pole their boats up the crowded canal.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication_ Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_, which is available as a free PDF <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf</u>
- Title: Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice
- Creator: Francesco Guardi
- Date Created: probably c. 1780
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 68.5 x 91.5 cm (26 15/16 x 36 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly John Ingram [1767-1841], Matsala [or Marsala] House, England;[1] probably passed to his son Hughes Ingram [b. c. 1800]; probably passed to his nephew Ingram Fuller Godfrey [1827-1916].[2] John G. Johnson, Philadelphia; purchased 1894 by Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] _Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Private Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. Part II. Early English and Ancient Paintings_, Paris, 1885-1900: 202, gives the provenance as "Ingram (Marsala House) Collection." A typewritten copy of the same catalogue, dated 1908 on the binding (NGA library, Rare Book Collection), changes "Marsala" to "Matsala." Subsequent Widener catalogues (1916, 1923, and 1931) give the provenance as Matsala House. The probable pendant (see text of the NGA systematic catalogue entry) is listed in the _Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures Belonging to John G. Johnson_, Philadelphia, 1892: 86, no. 257, as coming from "Ingram of Marsala House." Ingram has not been identified conclusively, but would appear to be John Ingram, who is known to have collected Guardi views in Venice around 1800. On John Ingram see Francis Haskell, "Francesco Guardi as _Vedutista_ and Some of His Patrons", _Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes_ 23 (1960): 271-272. In a letter of 17 September 1968 (NGA curatorial files), Haskell wrote that he was baffled by the reference to Matsala House. John Ingram is known to have resided at Staindrop Hall, County Durham; in Venice; and later in Rome. [2] The later history of John Ingram's collection is traced by James Byam Shaw, "Some Guardi Drawings Rediscovered", _Master Drawings_ 15 (1977): 3-5. Parts of Ingram's collection were dispersed at the end of the nineteenth century in public sales that did not include paintings. Johnson may have acquired the Washington and Philadelphia paintings directly or indirectly from Ingram's heirs at about this time, but this cannot be documented. [3] According to a typewritten card in the Lynnewood Hall Inventories, NGA curatorial files. The painting does not appear in the 1892 Johnson catalogue cited in note 1.
- Medium: oil on canvas
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