Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

The Grand Canal, Venice

Francesco Guardi · c. 1760

Analyst brief

What the record supports

Francesco Guardi's "The Grand Canal, Venice," an oil on canvas, dates to approximately 1760. Measuring 73 × 119.4 cm, the Italian artwork is held in the Painting and Sculpture of Europe department at the Art Institute of Chicago, acquired via the Wirt D. Walker Fund in 1951 from Koetser Gallery, New York.

The painting's provenance traces back to S.C. Weston, Esq., London, by 1840, passing to his son Alexander Anderdon Weston and then his widow, Isabella Frances Weston. It was sold at Christie's, London, in 1949 to Koetser for £7,200. "The Grand Canal, Venice" has been featured in several exhibitions, including at the British Institution in London in 1840 and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice in 1993, and has been cited in various scholarly publications.

Francesco Guardi, an Italian painter, lived from 1712 to 1793. No specific nationality is provided in the artist authority record, though his birth and death years are confirmed. Comparable holdings by Guardi at The Metropolitan Museum of Art include several Venetian scenes and fantastic landscapes, dated from the mid-1760s to the late 1780s.

Generated from the catalogue fields shown on this page. Nartmad does not assert attributions, valuations or prices that no cited source supports.

Provenance

Ownership history

S(amuel) C(harles) Weston, Esq, London by 1840 [according to Graves 1913, p. 452]; by descent to his son, Alexander Anderdon Weston, Esq., London, died 1901 [according to Venice 1993, no. 30, pp. 106-7]; his widow Isabella Frances Weston, died 1922; sold by order of the Trustees of Isabella Frances Weston, Christie’s, London, October 21, 1949, no. 31, to Koetser for £7,200 pounds [according to annotated catalogue at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago]; Koetser Gallery, New York; sold to the Art Institute in 1951.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

London, British Institution, Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters with which the Proprietors have Favoured the Institution, 1840, no. 129.
London, Royal Academy of Art, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School; including a Special Selection from the Works of Paul Falconer Poole, R.A., 1884, no. 158.
London, New Gallery, Exhibition of Venetian Art, 1894-5, no. 264.
Detroit, Institute of Arts, September 30 – November 2, 1952 and Indianapolis, John Herron Institute of Arts, November 15 – December 31, 1952, Venice 1700-1800, no. 23.
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Painters’ Painters, April 16 – June 2, 1954, no. 11.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mozart Memorial, January – February, 1956, no cat.
Champaign, University of Illinois, Venetian Villas, November 1956, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, September 19 – November 8, 1970, Minneapolis, Institute of Arts, December 3, 1970 - January 10, 1971, and Toledo, Museum of Art, February 7 – March 21, 1971, Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century, no. 22.
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini Instituto di Storia dell’Arte, Franceso Guardi: Vedute, Capricci, Feste, August 28-November 28, 1993, cat. 30.

Literature

Published references

Bernhard Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance with an Index to their Works, Third ed. (New York, 1903), p. 109.
Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, Vol. 1 (New York, 1913), pp. 452, 454.
Antonio Morassi, “Conclusioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi,” Emporium 64 (1951), pp. 297, 214, fig. 17.
“Recent Accessions: From Two European Theaters for Two American Galleries,” Art Digest 26, no. 13 (1952), p. 10.
“Recent Purchases and Gifts,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 46 (1952), p. 71.
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1956), p. 27.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae 16 (1961), p. 518.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 207-208.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, Francesco Guardi (Lisbon, 1966), p. 17.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, “La Pittura Veneta del Settecento alla Mostra Itinerante di Chicago-Minneapolis-Toledo,” Arte Veneta 24 (1970), p. 290.
“Where Lemon Trees Blossom,” Apollo 92 (1970), pp. 172, 176, fig. 12.
Antonio Morassi, Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi (Venice, 1973), vol. 1, pp. 230, 243, no. 464, vol. II, no. 469.

Comparables