(Venice 1712–1793)
The Arcade of the Torre dell’Orologio in Venice, with shops and women conversing,
pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash over pencil, heightened in white, laid down on card support, 35 x 27.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
with The Brod Gallery, London (as Francesco Guardi);
where acquired by the father of the present owner, circa 1968;
Private collection, England

We are grateful to Bożena Anna Kowalczyk for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original and for cataloguing this lot.

Francesco Guardi specialised in view painting late in his artistic career, around 1755, but rapidly reached international fame with the British patrons, continuing the tradition of Canaletto through his renewed vision of painting and drawing. The view through an archway, topographic or invented, painted or drawn, is emblematic of his scenographic taste, his freedom of invention and inexhaustible inspiration. From about 1770, until the last years of his life, the artist created numerous versions of this type of composition, meeting enthusiastic approval from collectors even in his own lifetime.

This composition is one of the most successful. The arch is recognisable as that of the Torre dell’Orologio in Venice, seen from the calle named Mercerie, lined with shops. The refined rococo lantern hanging from the vault of the arch in this work has now been replaced by a modern version. Beyond the arch, on the left-hand side, instead of the San Marco church, there are rustic buildings and a domed church; on the right, a round tower; and in the distance, the lagoon with two sailing boats. The street scene is animated with figures of merchants and gentlemen, washerwomen and dogs.

There is a close correspondence of every detail of the present work to the painting formerly belonging to Lord Normanton and now in a private collection (A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, p. 454, no. 454; B. A. Kowalczyk, in: De Zurbaran à Rothko. Collection Alicia Koplowitz, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 2017, p. 92-93, no. 27). The particular style and execution of the present drawing suggests that it is a preparatory sheet for an etching. Etchings taken from Francesco Guardi’s compositions are few, unlike other Venetian vedute painters: Canaletto (1697–1768) collaborated with several etchers including Antonio Visentini and Giovanni Battista Brustolon; his nephew Bellotto (1722–1780) used to translate his own paintings and drawings into prints. Another two of Guardi’s views through an arch have been incised and were probably chosen as the most attractive ones: a pendant to the Lord Normanton painting, which shared the same collecting history, The Arcade of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, towards the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, monogrammed in the lower left corner ‘F.G.P’ (see A. Morassi, op. cit., 1973, vol. I, p. 454, under no. 776, vol. II, fig. 709; B. A. Kowalczyk, op. cit., 2017, p. 92-93, no. 27), and The Architectural Capriccio with the Arcade of the Torre dell’Orologio conserved in the National Gallery, London, signed in the same way and that stands out for a similar high quality. Sir Michael Levey supposed that the pair of ex-Normanton and the National Gallery Capriccio originally formed a series (see M. Levey, National Gallery Catalogues. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1971, pp. 130-132, no. NG2523; A. Morassi, op. cit., 1973, vol I., p. 784).

This hypothesis can be confirmed by the recent acquaintance of the present sheet and by the finding of the related, hitherto unknown print made by the same etcher from Parma, Dionigi Valesi (active 1730 – about 1777), and offered for sale at Gonnelli Libreria Antiquaria & Casa d’Aste, Florence, 26 May 2020, lot 122, with The Architectural Capriccio reproducing the painting of The National Gallery, London, no. NG2523. This increases Valesi’s corpus of prints after Guardi bringing it to five, amongst them two beautiful views of Venice, The Canal Grande with the Riva di Biasio and The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore (see R. Gallo, L’incisione nel ‘700 a Venezia e a Bassano, Venice 1941, p. 45; D. Succi, in: Da Carlevarijs a Tiepolo. Incisori veneti e friulani del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1983, p. 413, nos. 539–540). The preparatory drawings must have been executed in 1777 or slightly before, as they have accompanied the request of printing ‘several views of Venice by the famous Francesco Guardi, and varj capricci di architettura’, advanced on 19 August of that year by the Venetian book-seller Melchior Gabrieli to the Senate of the Serenissima. The privilege was granted on 23 May 1778, following the favourable judgement of the Reformers of the University of Padua, who recognised the importance and fame of the master and cherished the quality of the drawings as ‘entirely new for invention and beauty and for a careful, delicate and well finished execution’ (see R. Gallo, op. cit., 1941, pp. 44-45). The name of the engraver is not mentioned on this occasion but in addition to Valesi also Antonio Sandi could have been engaged (Antonio Sandi [1733–1817] is author of the other three etchings after Guardi; see D. Succi, op cit., Venice 1983, pp. 348-49, nos. 447-49).

It is impossible to know if the present sheet was amongst the drawings presented by Gabrieli but it certainly corresponds to one of the largest stages of the preparatory work. Carefully following the composition of the ex-Normanton painting, studying and adjusting any line and proportion, Francesco Guardi worked while being aware of the translation into engraving. The arches are incised with a compass through a series of the significant ‘pentimenti’, which at the end fit perfectly with those in the painting, including the passages of shadow and light. Drawing first with a soft brown ink, the artist reinforced the contour lines with a very dark toner stretched out with safe and fluid movements. He attributed a great importance to the foreground, suggesting the mellowness of the colour’s layers with the dark spots on the dresses of the figures, the merchandise displayed on the street and the clothes hanging on the shop’s entrance. A refined alternation of two tones of wash, brown and grey, is also a guide for the etcher: the grey indicates the zones where the shadow was lighter, as on the wall on the right.

Similar proceedings and techniques characterise the preparatory drawings for two other prints of the series by Valesi, all, as the present sheet, outstanding works of art: The Arcade of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, towards the church of San Giorgio Maggiore formerly Crespi Collection, Milan (after the ex-Normanton pendant) (see A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti I disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice 1975, p. 171, no. 534, fig. 526; Colonna Collection, Turin and then, Crespi, Milan; sale, Christie’s, Milan, 30 May 2012, lot 10; Pandolfini Casa d’Aste, Florence, 30 October 2018, lot 193; Galerie Eric Coatalem, Paris, 2019) and The Architectural Capriccio with the Arcade of the Torre dell’Orologio, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, related to the National Gallery painting (see A. Morassi, op cit., 1975, p. 174, no. 549, fig. 538).

In addition to various pictorial versions (the present composition was adopted by Guardi with variations also in the painting in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich and in a smaller, oval version on panel, Wallace Collection, London; see A. Morassi, op cit., 1974, vol. I, p. 461, no. 812 and 814; vol. II, figs. 737 and 740), Guardi executed other, later drawings of similar compositions. Intended for the art market, they embody his peculiar, tremulous, less defined line, freer and airier. The present composition reappears, with minor variations, in the signed sheet conserved in the British Museum (see A. Morassi, op cit., 1975, p. 179, no. 584, fig. 574) and in the version in the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (see A. Morassi, op cit., 1975, p. 179–180, no. 585, fig. 575); the two others are repeated in the sheets belonging to the Real Print Room, Copenhagen (see A. Morassi, op cit., 1975, p. 171, no. 533, fig. 525) and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see A. Morassi, op cit., 1975, pp. 173–174, no. 548, fig. 537).