Procession of Gondolas in the Bacino di San Marco

Francesco Guardi (Italian (Venetian), 1712–1793)

about 1782

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions98.1 x 138.1 cm (38 5/8 x 54 3/8 in.)

Credit LinePicture Fund

Accession number11.1451

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

Guardi, a painter of vedute (or views) of his native Venice, was particularly drawn to festive and ceremonial subjects. This procession of gondolas, including three covered in gold, may be the entourage of an arriving dignitary—perhaps Pope Pius VI, who came to Venice in March 1782. In the background, warships hail the boats with cannon salutes. On the left sunlight strikes the façade of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore. Guardi's handling of paint is freer and more atmospheric than that of his famous colleague Canaletto; he includes less detail, but employs a greater contrast of light and shadow.

ProvenanceCaptain Harvey (possibly John Edmund Audley Harvey, b. 1851 - d. 1937, Ickwell Bury, Bedfordshire, England) [see note 1]. With Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London [see note 2]. July 11, 1907, sold by Calouste Gulbenkian (b. 1869 - d. 1955) to Thomas Agnew and Sons, London (stock no. 2314); July 7, 1909, sold by Agnew to Baron Michele Lazzaroni (1863 - d. 1934), Paris [see note 3]. 1911, Trotti et Companie, Paris; 1911, sold by Trotti to Jules Guiffrey for the MFA for 135, 000 fr. (Accession Date: July 6, 1911)

NOTES:
[1] When the painting was sold to the MFA by Trotti in 1911, the receipt noted that it had come from the collection of "Capt. Harvey, London." Captain John Edmund Audley Harvey, an art collector, lived at Ickwell Bury and owned "two fine works by Guardi" (see John Murray, Handbook for Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Huntingdonshire, London, 1895, p. 206). In 1936, Trotti reported that they had handled a second Guardi from the Harvey collection, in 1909. This painting (now Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, KMS3630), while considered a pendant to the MFA work, was not sold with it, either to Agnew or to Trotti.

[2] According to notes in the MFA curatorial file.

[3] Getty Research Institute, Records of Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd., 1852-1938, microfiche no. 29.