Lot 15

Carlo Broglio, Paris
inherited by his wife who sold it at auction at the Palais Galliera in Paris, 20 March 1974, lot 33
Private collection, Rome
Sotheby's, Milan, Importante Collezione Romana, 12 November 2003, lot 129
where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and catalogue)

Morassi, A., Guardi: i dipinti, 2 vols, 2nd ed., Venice: Alfieri, 1984, vol. 1, p. 472, cat. no. 876 (Francesco Guardi)
Morassi, A., Guardi, L'Opera Completa, 3 vols, Milan: Electa Mondadori, 1993, vol. I, p. 472, cat. no. 876 (Francesco Guardi)
Pignatti, T., Disegni antichi del Museo Correr di Venezia, Venice: 1983, vol. III, p. 140, no. 620
Morassi, A., Guardi: tutti i disegni, Venezia: 1975, p. 184, sotto no. 610

Attribution to Francesco Guardi was re-affirmed prior to the Sotheby's auction by Professor Filippo Pedrocco and Professor Dario Succi, based on photographs.

RELATED WORK:
Francesco Guardi, Architetture: ponte. Mezzi di trasporto: imbarcazioni, 1780s, drawing on paper, pen and brown ink, pen and sepia ink, 118 x 104mm, Venice, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano (inv. Cl. III n. 0868)

LOT ESSAY:
Francesco Guardi began painting capricci in the 1760s, initially looking not at Canaletto, as he had done with his view-paintings, but at the capricci of painters like Marco Ricci and Luca Carlevarijs who were active earlier in the century.(1) It was characteristic of his practice that he would copy the compositions of others, reinterpreting their works with his own distinctive handling.(2) He would pick up pictorial themes from any source at hand, playing variations on these themes like a musician. Much of his production of capricci belongs to his later period, the 1770s and 1780s until his death in 1793. His son Giacomo (1764-1835) continued working in his style.
This work was published in Morassi's catalogue of 1973 and 1984 (unillustrated) as 'opera molto tarda di livello mediocre' (a very late work of mediocre quality). Morassi was unaware that the painting corresponds to a drawing by Francesco Guardi in the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, as emerged at the time the work was sold in Milan in 2003.(3) Consequently, the leading Guardi experts, Filippo Pedrocco and Dario Succi, confirmed the attribution.

While Guardi's compositions often appear in multiple variants, this composition appears to be unique. It recalls various capricci of the lock at Dolo on the Brenta canal (such as the version in the National Gallery of Victoria, acc. 229-4), but the recession is reversed, the composition is more focused, and the arch has classical elements, including an elaborate keystone and classical columns on the bank. This has echoes of Piranesi's bridge compositions. In this respect it may be connected with works riffing on Piranesian themes, such as Morassi 719 (Madrid, Duke of Alba).

David R. Marshall

(1) For example, Morassi 822, 928. See Dario Succi, 'Francesco Guardi', in Comune di Gorizia, Dario Succi (ed.), Capricci Veneziani del Settecento, Turin: Allemandi, 1988, pp. 325-383.
(2) For example, Morassi 702, which reworks a painting by Marco and Sebastiano Ricci in the Museo Civico di Pzalazzo Chieracati, Vicenza, or Morassi 840, Vrona, Museo del Castelvecchio, which is based on an etching by Canbaletto.
(3) Francesco Guardi, Architetture: ponte. Mezzi di trasporto: imbarcazioni, 1780s. Venice, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, inv. Cl. III n. 0868. Drawing on paper, pen and brown ink, pen and sepia ink. 118 x 104 mm.