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.

The commission and its connection with Britain

Henry Howard became 4th Earl of Carlisle on the death of his father in 1738. Shortly afterwards he embarked on his second Grand Tour of Italy (1738–39), arriving in Venice by November 1738.1 There is little documentary evidence relating to the 4th Earl’s purchase of more than forty view paintings but we do know that those he commissioned had arrived at Castle Howard by June 1740: a letter from the 4th Earl’s agent in Venice, Antonio Maria Zanetti, records his pleasure at the paintings’ safe arrival in England. In the same letter Zanetti invites the 4th Earl to encourage his friends to commission further views from Bellotto, deliberately pointing out that he ‘is the best [painter] there is, and who is as skilful as Canaletto’.2 The 4th Earl’s early patronage of Bellotto – and Zanetti’s active promotion of the artist’s works – was therefore crucial in the development of Bellotto’s career as an independent artist. Indeed the paintings Bellotto produced for the 4th Earl make up the single largest body of early works to have been purchased by a single patron.

The painting under consideration formed part of a series of more than forty view paintings, described as ‘Canaletto’ in various Castle Howard inventories and

1 He went on to Rome, Leghorn and Florence, leaving Italy on 26 July 1739. 2 The letter is dated 3 June 1740 (quoted in Sotheby’s catalogue entry). publications throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Among them were five views by Canaletto (including one of the artist’s masterpieces, the Bacino di San Marco in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 1939); eighteen views by Michele Marieschi; two by Giambattista Cimaroli; and approximately fifteen by Bellotto. A number were destroyed in the great fire at the house in 1940; others were sold by the 9th Earl in 1895; and now only three paintings by Bellotto – besides this one – remain at Castle Howard. These are a View of the Campo Santo Stefano (59 x 89.5 cm), a View of the Piazzetta di San Marco and the Libreria (59 x 89.5 cm), and the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day (108 x 152.5 cm; included in the National Gallery’s 2010-11 exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, cat. no. 42); the present painting being the only view of the Grand Canal. These four paintings by Bellotto hung together at Castle Howard – in their matching, original carved and gilt wood frames – since the mid-eighteenth century until 2015.

Conclusion

It has been argued that the painting under consideration is important in the context of Bellotto’s early career in Venice, and that it is intimately linked with one of his earliest patrons, the 4th Duke of Carlisle. Collectively this and the Bellottos that remain at Castle Howard constitute one of the most important groups of works by the artist that have remained in the same family collection for which they were painted. Furthermore, in the context of British patronage of 18th-century Venetian view painters, the importance of the Castle Howard group of Bellottos is on a par with Canaletto’s series of twelve pictures showing sequential views of the Grand Canal (of which Canaletto’s prototype for this adaptation by Bellotto is one), painted for Consul Joseph Smith and acquired with the rest of Smith’s collection by George III in 1762; or the twenty-four views painted by Canaletto in 1732–35 for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (1710–1771), still at Woburn Abbey;3 or even the twenty views painted by Canaletto in the mid-1730s for Charles, 5th Earl of Sunderland and 3rd Duke of Marlborough (1706–1758), known as the ‘Harvey group’ on account of their being sold with the contents of Langley Park to Robert (Bateson) Harvey in 1788 (a group which has now been dispersed).4

3 See F. Russell, ‘The Pictures of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford’, in Apollo, vol. CXXVII, no. 316 (June 1988), pp. 402, 404. 4 See F. Russell, ‘Patterns of Patronage’, in C. Beddington, Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755, exh. cat., Yale Cente r for British Art & Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2006-7, pp. 38- 47.