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Report Case Study 25 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Bernardo Bellotto, called il Canaletto (Venice 1721–1780 Warsaw) Venice, a view of the Grand Canal looking South from the Palazzo Foscari and Palazzo Moro-Lin towards the Church of Santa Maria della Carità, with numerous gondolas and barges oil on canvas, probably 1738-39 59.7 x 89.5 cm (23½ x 35¼ in) Provenance: One of the Venetian views acquired by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (1694– 1758), through his agent Antonio Maria Zanetti (1679–1757), during or shortly after his stay in Venice in 1738–39; Recorded as having arrived at Castle Howard before June 1740; Thence by descent at Castle Howard until sold, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 2015, lot 21. Exhibited: Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, 25 September – 26 December 1994, no. 85; York, City Art Gallery, Venice through Canaletto's eyes, 1998. Bibliography (specific to the painting’s presence at Castle Howard): W. J., Accounts of Travels throughout Britain, 1743 (Beinecke Library, Yale, Osborne MSc.480) p. 92: 'There are 24 views of Venice by Canaletto'; Account of the Visit of Henrietta Countess of Oxford to Castle Howard in April 1745 (Ms. at Welbeck Abbey), in the Drawing Room: 'several views of Venice by Caniletti lately put up there', and 'in my Lady's dressing room are several views of Venice'; 4th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms. 1759, p. 20, Blue Coffoy Drawing Room: '18 Views of Venice'; England Displayed, being a new, complete, and accurate survey and description of the Kingdom of England and Principality of Wales…By a Society of Gentlemen, 1769: 'Eleven views of Venice, &c. very fine, glowing and brilliant'; 'Nineteen views of Venice, &c. A capital collection, which displays the beautiful glow and brilliancy of this master's colouring in a very high manner'; H. Walpole, 'Journals of Visits to Country Seats', 1772, ed. Paget Toynbee, Walpole Society, XVI, 1928, pp. 72–73: 'Many views of Venice by Canalletti in his very best & clearest manner'; 5th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms 1825, p. 2: 'Six views of Venice', Green Dressing Room; 'Nine views of Venice', Dining Room; 'Thirteen different views of Venice', Dressing Room, New Wing; 'Four Different Views of Venice', Dressing Room, New Wing; Georgiana, Countess of Carlisle, Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures, Ms. 1837, p. 30, Dining Room, records 18 Venetian view pictures; G. F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, London 1838, vol. III, p. 207: 'Pictures by Canaletto, some of them very excellent’; Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, 4th ed., 1845, p. 17, nos 40– 57, Dining Room: 'Canaletti, Views of Venice'; 6th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms. 1849, p. 125, nos 40–57, as in the Dining Room; G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. III, London 1854, p. 324; 7th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms. 1865, p. 170, in the Little Breakfast Room, 18 Views of Venice; Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, 1874, nos 59–76, Dining Room, Views of Venice; J. Duthie, Manuscript Catalogue of the pictures at Castle Howard, vol. I, 1878, inv. no. 501; J. Duthie, Manuscript Catalogue of the pictures at Castle Howard, vol. II, 1880, inv. no. 482; Hawkesbury, Catalogue of Portraits and Miniatures at Castle Howard and Naworth Castle, c. 1904, p. 13, nos 208–31, The Old Dining Room or Canaletti Room, 24 views of Venice; Rosalind, 9th Countess of Carlisle, Manuscript catalogue of pictures at Castle Howard, 1918, p. 25, no. 482; L. Jones, Manuscript catalogue of pictures at Castle Howard, Castle Howard Ms., 1926, no. 482; H. Brigstocke, in Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses, Yorkshire Families at Home and Abroad 1700–1850, exhibition catalogue, Yorkshire, City Art Gallery, 29 January – 20 March 1994, p. 72, under cat. no. 32. Bibliography: D. Succi, in Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, 25 September – 26 December 1994, pp. 54 and 266, cat. no. 85, reproduced in colour p. 270; J. G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London 1998, p. 33, under no. 334 (as a copy after Canaletto); D. Succi, 'Bernardo Bellotto nell'atelier di Canaletto e la sua produzione giovanile a Castle Howard nello Yorkshire', in Bernardo Bellotto detto il Canaletto, exhibition catalogue, Mirano, Barchessa di Villa Morosini, 23 October – 19 December 1999, p. 52 et passim; B.A. Kowalczyk, in Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Museo Correr, 10 February – 27 June 2001; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 29 July – 21 October 2001, p. 50, under cat. no. 3; B. A. Kowalczyk, in Canaletto e Bellotto: l'arte della veduta, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Palazzo Bricherasio, 14 March – 15 June 2008, p. 62, under cat. no. 4; C. Beddington, in Venice. Canaletto and his rivals, exhibition catalogue, London, National Gallery and Washington, National Gallery of Art, 13 October 2010 – 30 May 2011, p. 118, n. 8; B. A. Kowalczyk, 'Bellotto and Zanetti in Florence', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIV, January 2012, p. 31. Condition: The painting has been carefully restored since its appearance at auction in 2015. The canvas has been lined but the impasto and paint texture have not been excessively compressed. Retouched damages along the top edge, some thinness in the darker areas, strengthening in the water along the bottom edge and an accidental damage in the centre were all noted in the condition report provided by Sarah Walden for Sotheby’s; these have all since been carefully retouched by Simon Howell, on behalf of the present owner. Overall the painting is in very good condition, largely due to the fact that it has not changed ownership for 275 years and has hung in the same environment (at Castle Howard) since 1740. The carved and gilt wood frame is original, and was made for the picture in the early 1740s by Paul Petit (the 4th Earl of Carlisle’s framer): a payment of £64 is recorded in April 1644 for a total of fifteen carved and gilt wood frames, almost certainly including the one on the picture under consideration here. Export objection under Waverley ONE (closely connected with our history and national life) The painting originally formed part of a large group of over forty Venetian views by different artists – Canaletto, Bellotto, Marieschi and others – commissioned by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle, in Venice between 1738 and 1739, during his Grand Tour of Italy. As noted by Sotheby’s, ‘the picture is amongst the earliest and most important examples of works by Bellotto purchased by a British patron, and together with its companions that remain in situ at Castle Howard constitutes without question the most important single group of early Venetian works by him to have come down to us.’ DETAILED CASE The view The view shows a section of the Grand Canal, Venice’s main artery and a site much- depicted by Venetian 18th-century view painters. The view is taken specifically from a central point on the island, with the Palazzo Foscari in shadow on the right and the multi-windowed Palazzo Moro-Lin on the opposite side, bathing in light. In the centre of the composition, positioned at the painting’s vanishing point, the three-pointed façade of the church of Santa Maria della Carità breaks the line of rooftops on the horizon. The composition The composition is based on a prototype by Bellotto’s uncle and master, Giovanni Antonio Canal known as Canaletto (1697–1768). Canaletto’s original was painted for his agent and patron Consul Joseph Smith (1682–1770) around 1726–27, and is now in the Royal Collection (RCIN 401404; on view in the Cumberland Art Gallery at Hampton Court). Canaletto’s painting was engraved by Antonio Visentini in 1735 – for his Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetarium – and there is reason to believe that Bellotto based his painting on both Canaletto’s original (which would still have been in Consul Smith’s collection) and Visentini’s engraving, since there are differences and similarities with both. The gondolas and staffage differ significantly from Canaletto’s design and are Bellotto’s own. The same view was painted again by Bellotto, though on a larger scale and the time of day is different (101 x 162 cm; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm). The Stockholm painting is datable to 1740, on the basis of the inclusion of Prince Frederick Christian of Savoy who visited Venice in December 1739 (for six months), and it has therefore been convincingly argued that the Castle Howard painting probably served as its prototype (Kowalcyzk 2008, cat. no. 4). The artist Bernardo Bellotto was accepted into the Venetian painters’ guild in 1738, when he was sixteen years old. He seems to have entered Canaletto’s studio almost immediately and a number of Bellotto’s earliest Venetian works are, understandably, based upon or adapted from his uncle’s designs. Indeed many of his youthful works have been confused with Canaletto’s, or even considered merely workshop copies of his uncle’s: Constable/Links (1998) catalogued the painting under consideration as a copy after Canaletto, without recognising Bellotto’s authorship. Recent scholarship in this area – led especially by Dario Succi, Charles Beddington and Bozena Anna Kowalczyk – has led to a body of work consisting of more than fifty paintings, dated to Bellotto’s early years in Venice. After leaving Canaletto’s workshop Bellotto soon developed his own distinct style, favouring a cooler tonality, larger figures, a thicker application of paint and characteristic diagonal strokes to depict atmospheric skies. As already pointed out, this particular viewpoint and composition are not unique to Bellotto – nor are they even unique within Bellotto’s oeuvre – but it is the painting’s connection with the 4th Earl of Carlisle that mark it out as being of outstanding significance.
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