(Venice 1712–1793)
A seascape with sailing boats, a fortress beyond; and
A seascape with a ruinous fortress and boats,
oil on panel, each 13 x 21 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Collection of Sir Charles William Beeston Prescott (1877–1955), London, 6th Baronet;
his sale, Christie’s, London, 20 July 1956, lot 20 (as Francesco Guardi) sold for 1,800 gns;
with Koetser, New York, 1957;
with Lorenzelli, Bergamo, 1969;
Private collection, Bergamo;
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, Venezia ‘700, September – October 1969 (as Francesco Guardi)

Literature:
M. Valsecchi, R. Pallucchini (eds.), Venezia 700: Francesco Guardi e il suo tempo nelle raccolte private bergamasche, Bergamo 1969, pl. 17, XXXII, both illustrated (as Francesco Guardi);
A. Morassi, Una mostra di pitture veneziane del Settecento a Bergamo, in: Arte Veneta. Rivista di storia dell’arte, vol. 23, 1969, p. 302–304, figs. 351, 353 (as Francesco Guardi);
L. Rossi Bortolatto, L’opera completa di Francesco Guardi, Milan 1974, p. 97, no. 130, p. 132, no. 722, illustrated p. 130 (as Francesco Guardi);
A. Morassi, Guardi. I dipinti, Venice 1993 [1973], vol. I, p. 278;
462, cat. no. 820, not illustrated, p. 474, cat. no. 885, fig. 801 (as Francesco Guardi)

The present paintings appear to be late works by the Francesco Guardi and can be classified amongst the artist’s production of so-called ‘vedute ideate’. The term was coined by Canaletto and describes compositions that abandon the realistic documentation of a view creating instead an amalgamation of imaginary architectural and scenic elements, which nevertheless remain Venetian in essence.

Both panels show a maritime scene with sailing boats, figures and architecture. The balance of vertical and horizontal elements gives the composition an expression of calm, which is reinforced by the reduced palette. This is complemented by Guardi’s ‘pittura di tocco’ (painting of touch), created by vibrant brush strokes, as well as small dots and dashes rather than solid strokes, which render the paintings’ atmosphere poetic. Plasticity is created by a refined play of light and shadow, together with a loose modelling, using swiftly applied black outlines and white highlights. The figures play a secondary role in Guardi’s vedute, and they tend be composed of single patches of colour, without outline. Morassi observes that the present paintings may have formed a series of three ‘vedute ideate’ with another panel having similar dimensions and subject (see Morassi 1993, in literature, p. 462, fig. 800).

Francesco Guardi was one of the last great 18th century masters of Venetian vedutisimo, or view painting. He trained in the family studio with his elder brother Gian Antonio and spent his entire career in Venice. He began as a figure painter and only at an advanced stage in his career, probably around the mid-1750s, when he was already in his maturity, did he begin to dedicate himself to view painting, owing to considerable demand. Guardi was also a history and genre painter, a portraitist, as well as a painter of landscapes and capricci, all of which attained great acclaim among his Venetian contemporaries and patrons.