(Vienna 1812–1905)
The Grand Canal with the Ca d’Oro, Venice, signed, dated R. Alt 1847, watercolour, pencil on paper, 14.5 x 18.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Collection Wilhelm Heinrich Schab (1887-1975), Vienna/New York;
Thence by descent to his daughter Frances Remeny (1920-2018), New York;
Thence by descent to her nephew Dr. David W. Schab, New York/Vienna.

Catalogued in:
Walter Koschatzky, Rudolf von Alt. 1812–1905, Salzburg 1975, CR 47/21.

In autumn 1874 Rudolf von Alt rushed to Venice, where he stayed at the Hotel d'Italie (probably the forerunner of the later Hotel Bauer on the Grand Canal) until mid-November. He had spent the whole year working on commissions for the Ministry of Culture in Vienna and Graz, and the months in Venice finally allowed him to paint his favourite motifs - especially St Mark's Basilica - without any constraints. He rarely took time for new subjects - unless a view captivated him as much as this one of the magnificent façade of the Ca’ d’Oro on the upper course of the Grand Canal. He captured it from the fish market opposite, the Campo della Pescaria. It is early in the morning; a fine haze still lies over the smooth water in which the windows of the buildings are reflected in rhythmic movement. The neighbouring palaces are bathed in a delicate, iridescent blue; only the polychrome marble slabs of the Ca’ d’Oro reflect the first light of day in a ‘golden’ brown-red light.

This watercolour is one of the most enchanting Venetian atmospheric paintings in Rudolf von Alt’s oeuvre.