Canaletto & Bellotto

CANALET TO & BELLOT TO Views of Venice, Rome & London

CANALET TO & BELLOT TO Views of Venice, Rome and London

2019 CHARLES BEDDINGTON LTD

1 REINIER NOOMS, called ZEEMAN Venice: The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day

REINIER NOOMS, called ZEEMAN (Amsterdam c. –) Venice: The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day Signed ‘Zeeman’ (lower left) Oil on canvas  ⅞ x  ⅞ in. (. x . cm.)

Provenance: Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s, London,  February , lot , as ‘Zeeman’ ( to W. Duits).

Anon. Sale, Drouot, Paris,  April , lot , as ‘Régnier Zeeman’.

Private Collection, France, until .

topography. They include views of the Louvre (two, dated . and  respectively, in the Louvre), Tunis, Salee in Morocco, Tripoli, Syracuse and Algiers (all Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the latter of ), as well as Dutch cities such as Zaandam and his native Amsterdam (Historisch Museum, Rijksmuseum and Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam).

There are also a number of depictions of unidentified North African and other Mediterranean coasts.

This unique view of Venice is characteristically accurate in its detail, both of the buildings and mid-seventeenth century gondolas and sandalos, and is an important document of the appearance of the city and its inhabitants in the mid-seventeenth century. With a Dutch sky and clouds, Nooms sees Venice through Dutch eyes more than forty years before Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (Amersfoort /–Rome ), the Dutch-born father of Italian view painting, whose influential visit to Venice is datable to –.

Literature: L. Heiner, ‘Nooms, Reinier’ in The Dictionary of Art, , ed. J. Turner, London, , p. .

Painted by an artist who died in , this painting is datable more precisely from the coat-of-arms, showing a mill wheel, on the hatchment which is being displayed by a senator on the roof of the Bucintoro. Those are of Doge Francesco Molin, the th Doge of Venice, who reigned  January – February . It is thus one of the earliest independent views of Venice, painted with the intention of topographical accuracy.

Nooms spent much of his career as a sailor on Dutch merchant vessels, hence the nickname ‘Zeeman’ (Dutch for ‘Seaman’) with which he signs his work. His paintings, which are mostly on canvas, are of three types. Depictions of shipping in calm seas, showing a predominant interest in light and atmosphere, recall those of the slightly younger Willem van de Velde II (Leiden – Greenwich). He also painted sea battles, sometimes probably from first-hand experience, the greatest being a huge canvas of The Battle of Leghorn, 1653 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Nooms’ representation of ships is predictably accurate, given his first-hand knowledge in this area. His views of places visited on his travels, notably while travelling the major Dutch trading routes to Paris, Italy and the North African coast, are rather different in character but equally precise in their depiction of the

 R. Preston, Seventeenth Century Marine Painters of the Netherlands, Leigh-on-Sea, , records that the signature is occasionally read as ‘Seeman’.  Examples are in the Louvre, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna (; B. Haak, The Golden Age: Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London, , fig. ), the Berlin Gemäldegalerie, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and elsewhere (W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, II, London, , fig. ).  W. Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London, , fig. .

2 GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO Venice: The Grand Canal, looking West, with the Church of Santa Maria della Salute

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO (Venice –) Venice: The Grand Canal, looking West, with the Church of Santa Maria della Salute Oil on canvas  ¾ x  ¾ in. (. x  cm.)

Provenance: Mario Crespi (–), Milan.

His widow Fosca (–), Milan.

Her daughter Elvira (“Biki”) Leonardi Bouyeure (–), Milan.

With Simon C. Dickinson Ltd, from whom purchased by a UK private collector in .

Literature: C. Beddington, ‘Some little-known Venetian views by Canaletto of the s’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVIII, No. , November , pp. –, fig.  (colour, image reversed).

This painting, apparently completely unrecorded before its publication in , is one of the most significant early Canaletto rediscoveries of recent decades. A composition without close parallel, it displays throughout the wonderfully spontaneous response to atmospheric effects which separated the painter from his precursors, and indeed contemporaries. The date must be close to the pair of Venetian views from the collection of Johann Joseph von Wallenstein at Dux in Bohemia, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and subsequent editions revised by J. G. Links], I, pls.  and ; II, nos.  and ; both exhibited Venice, Fondazione Cini, Canaletto prima maniera, , pp. –, nos. –, both illustrated in colour), and the artist’s first great masterpieces, the set of four large canvases painted for Joseph Wenzel Liechtenstein, now divided between the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (The Piazza San Marco looking East and The Grand Canal,

looking East from the Campo di San Vio, Constable, op. cit., I, pls.  and : II, nos.  and ) and the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice (The Grand Canal looking North-East from the Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge and The Rio dei Mendicanti, idem, I, pls.  and , II, nos.  and ; all four were included in the Canaletto prima maniera exhibition, pp. –, nos. , all illustrated in colour). All datable within the years –, all combine very broadly executed, disturbed skies with areas of intricate detail. In this painting the extraordinarily delicate treatment of the small group of figures on the quay to the right of centre, caught by sunlight from the rio to the right, parallels a similar group on the quay in front of the Palazzo Dandolo-Paolucci on the left in the much larger The Grand Canal looking North-East from the Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge.

The composition had previously only been known from a larger version, presumably a derivation, sold in the Locke Sale, Kende, New York,  November , lot , illustrated, as by Canaletto, and then with Frederick Mont, New York, in  as by Marieschi. In that painting the details correspond closely, but more sky is shown and the composition is slightly stretched along the vertical axis.

Mario Crespi, the first recorded owner, was one of the great Canaletto collectors of the twentieth century. He owned the spectacular pair showing The Grand Canal, looking North-East from the Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge (sold Sotheby’s, London,  July , lot ; Constable, op. cit., I, pl. ; II, nos. (a) and (b)), and The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day with the Bucintoro returning to the Molo (sold Ader Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris,  December , lot ; idem, I, pl. ; II, no. ); four paintings from the Liechtenstein Collection, the two from the early set of four large canvases, both now in the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, mentioned above, and two from the small series The Bacino di San Marco from the Piazzetta (idem, I, pl. ; II, no. ) and The Dogana and the Giudecca Canal (idem, I, pl. ; II, no. ); also a small view of The Grand Canal, looking North-West from the Fondamenta della Croce to the Lagoon (idem, I, pl. ; II, no. ). His younger brother Aldo owned the very large and exceptional pair of The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day with the Bucintoro returning (idem, I, pl. ; II, no. ) and The Reception of the Imperial Ambassador, Conte Giuseppe Bolagnos at the Doge’s Palace (idem, I, pl. : II, no. ). 

3 JOSEPH BAUDIN Venice: The Grand Canal, looking North-East from the Palazzo Foscari to the Rialto Bridge

JOSEPH BAUDIN (London –/) Venice: The Grand Canal, looking North-East from the Palazzo Foscari to the Rialto Bridge Oil on canvas  x  ⅞ in. (. x  cm.)

Provenance: Sir Henry Strakosch (–), “Heatherside”, Walton-on-the-Hill, Tadworth, Surrey. Samuel Harris, by whom purchased with the house from Strakosch’s estate; his sale, Phillips Son & Neale and Harris & Gillow (on the premises),  May  [=rd day], lot , as ‘Canaletto’; retained by the family and by descent to the present owner.

This painting is a copy of the larger painting by Canaletto in the Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, following it even in details of colour and thus clearly executed in front of the prototype. While that painting is, however, in the artist’s spontaneous and moody early style and is datable to the first half of the s, this painting more closely resembles his more precise and sunny mature style of the s. The only other known early copy of the Ferens Art Gallery painting is one of twelve important gouaches by Joseph Baudin after early works by Canaletto which were engraved in two series, six by Louis-Philippe Boitard published (by Baudin himself ) on  April , and six by Henry Fletcher published (again by Baudin himself ) on  June . A complete set of the engravings is in the Dresden print room, and six coloured impressions appeared together at auction in . Seven of the gouaches have been identified, two of which were sold at Christie’s, Paris,  March , lot , and again at Sotheby’s, Paris,  May , lot . In those the turbulent atmosphere of Canaletto’s work of the early s is similarly replaced by placid sunshine.

Those gouaches have hitherto been Baudin’s only certain works, much discussed in The Burlington Magazine. He is, however, also recorded explicitly as a painter in oils, both by

George Vertue, writing shortly after , and by the text on the engraving by Andrew Miller of  after his portrait painted by C. Schruder, which calls him ‘Josephus Baudin Pictor. Publisher of the Views of Venice’. Despite this, only Hilda Finberg has attempted to attribute an oil painting to him. There exists in an English private collection, however, a large view of The Molo, looking West which is not only certainly by the same hand as this painting but also, like it, is a copy of a painting by Canaletto which only Baudin is known to have copied. This would seem to leave no reasonable doubt that both are, like the corresponding gouaches, the work of Baudin. � purchased by a private collector, u. s. a.

“Heatherside” had been built in  for Sir Henry Greer (–). . x . cm.; W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and editions, Oxford,  and , revised by J. G. Links], I, pl. , II, no. ; exhibited London, Royal Academy of Arts, Art Treasures of England: The Regional Collections, , p. , no. , illustrated in colour; exhibited Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Canaletto-Guardi Les Deux Maîtres de Venise, –, pp. –, no. , illustrated in colour.  Dumouchelles, Detroit,  October , lot .  See H. F. Finberg, ‘Joseph Baudin, Imitator of Canaletto’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. LX, No. , April , pp. –; F. J. Watson, ‘A Note on Joseph Baudin’s Copies after Canaletto’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. IIIC, No. , November , p. ; J. G. Links, ‘A Missing Canaletto Found’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CIX, No. , pp. –; F. J. Watson, ‘Joseph Baudin again’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CIX, No. , July , pp. –.  ‘Vertue Note Books V’, The Walpole Society, XXVI, –, p. .  An impression is in the National Portrait Gallery. ⁷ I am indebted to Viola Pemberton-Pigott for drawing my attention to this painting; Baudin’s original gouache was, in fact, sold with his gouache after the Ferens Art Gallery painting at Sotheby’s, Olympia, London,  October , lot , as ‘Follower of Canaletto’.  

4 MICHELE MARIESCHI Venice: The Grand Canal with the Churches of San Simeone Piccolo and the Scalzi

MICHELE MARIESCHI (Venice –) Venice: The Grand Canal with the Churches of San Simeone Piccolo and the Scalzi Oil on canvas  ⅞ x  ⅝ in. (. x  cm.)

In the original William Kent style carved giltwood frame Provenance: The Rev. Dr. Thomas Tanner (–), Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, –, and since then in the Deanery.

Sold on behalf of the Parochial Church Council of St Mary’s Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk.

Literature: The Rev. Hugh Pigot, m.a., Curate of Hadleigh, Hadleigh. The Town; the Church; and the Great Men who have been born in, or connected with the Parish, A Paper read before The Suffolk Archæological Institute at their Meeting at Hadleigh, October 9, 1857, Lowestoft, , pp.  and .

W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and subsequent editions, revised by J. G. Links], II, no. (b).

This painting has traditionally been believed to be the work of Canaletto, and to have been given by Canaletto to Dr. Tanner, Rector of Hadleigh, while staying as his guest in c. , along with a pair of landscapes with ruins which have also remained in the Deanery since then. The landscapes are anonymous Roman works of the seventeenth century, and this painting is a characteristic work by Marieschi. There is no reason to doubt that it was owned by Dr. Tanner, who may indeed have been the first owner and who commissioned a large view of Hadleigh Church and Deanery from a young Thomas Gainsborough in c. , also to serve as an overmantel in the Deanery. Tanner, the son-in-law of John

Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury –, was also Dean of Bocking, Rector of Monks’ Eleigh and Prebendary of Canterbury, and more affluent than most rectors.

The son of a minor craftsman who died when Michele, the eldest of eight children, was only ten years old, Marieschi came from a very humble background in the poorest area of Venice. Little is known about his career before , when he was inscribed in the Collegio dei Pittori and on  November received from Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg  zecchini – a handsome sum for a painting by an un-established artist – for a view of The Courtyard of the Doge’s Palace (there are two contenders for this – Italian private collection and Osterley Park, National Trust). That was followed on  April  by an advance of  zecchini and two silver medals for a depiction of The Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge from the North and the Arrival of the new Patriarch Antonio Correr, 7 February 1735 (Osterley Park, National Trust) . On  August  Marieschi was able to invest  zecchini with the Arte dei Lunganegheri for a term of not less than four years. The money was invested in the name of his fiancée Angela Fontana, whom he married in November. His father-in-law Domenico Fontana was a successful picture dealer and the couple seem to have lived in some comfort.

An inscription on a document of  December relating to his wife’s dowry would seem to show that Marieschi was almost illiterate. In  he published Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus, his great series of  etchings of Venetian views of his own composition. That was clearly intended to compete with Antonio Visentini’s Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum of , which had done so much to disseminate Canaletto’s compositions, the differences being that in Marieschi’s case the engravings were by the painter himself, and that there are notable variations between his paintings and the prints. Marieschi’s career was cut short at the age of , according to Guarienti because of his ‘excessive application to work and study’. Like Canaletto, Marieschi divided his production of Venetian views between fairly small canvases and a few much larger ones, which, apart from the two for Schulenburg, include The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking East, with Santa Maria della Salute (Paris, Louvre) and The Bacino di San Marco (English private collection). Marieschi was a competent, but not inspired, figure painter and more often than not he preferred to delegate the staffage in his views to specialised figure painters, including Giovanni Antonio Guardi, Gaspare

to be these to which Antonio Maria Zanetti the Elder refers in a letter of  June , in which he writes ‘I am pleased that you have received the paintings … I believe that you have put them in your country house …’. If so, all the components of the series should date from  or the first months of . A far wider range of dates was, however, suggested by all those who have offered opinions on the subject until Succi’s recent catalogue.

Diziani (who was a witness at his wedding), Francesco Simonini, and Francesco Fontebasso (who stood godfather to his third child in ). Establishing a chronology of Marieschi’s work is not easy, as his style had little time to develop. Some paintings can be dated from topographical details, and others from the circumstances of their acquisition. Henry Howard, th Earl of Carlisle, for instance, is first recorded in Venice in November . He commissioned from Marieschi a series of  Venetian views of the same size, which, although dispersed, can almost all be identified from a contemporary list in Italian which survives at Castle Howard. It may be presumed

This is a unique example of a Marieschi composition being very close to one by Canaletto, that of a painting of c. / in the Royal Collection of which a Visentini engraving was published in . Following the completion in  of the church of San Simeone Piccolo, opposite where the Santa Lucia Railway Station now stands, there are quite a number of depictions of this stretch of the Grand Canal by Venetian view painters, the vast majority of them looking South-West with the church of the Scalzi on the right, as here. The foremost and among the first of these is that of c.  by Canaletto in the National Gallery, one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces. An etching of the composition is pl.  in Marieschi’s series of etchings the Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus published in . Apart from this painting, three painted variants are already known and generally accepted as Marieschi’s work, all of similar dimensions. All vary in the boats and figures from the etching and from each other. While Marieschi’s paintings never correspond precisely with his etchings, this painting is closer to the etching than the other versions. A version in the Philadelphia Museum of Art omits the sandali in the lower left and lower right corners, as well as the gondolier in the prow of the central gondola, while the ship moored in the distance is replaced by two vessels with hoisted sails. In a version in a private collection, only the central four boats and the moored ship are similar. In those, as in this painting, the figures are the work of Giovanni Antonio Guardi (Vienna – Venice), the older brother of Francesco Guardi and the best of the specialist figure painter collaborators of Marieschi. A version showing a sandalo across the lower left corner and omitting the Brenta barge is only known from a black and white illustration. � purchased by a private collector

In his description of the Hadleigh Deanery (or Rectory) Tower in , Pigot writes ‘Over the doorways opening into the Oratory … are two paintings representing Italian views; and over the fireplace in the dining room, is a view in Venice … These are said to be the productions of Canaletti, and to have been executed in the old rectory. Canaletti was born in Venice in . In  he visited England, and remained in it two years; and tradition asserts that during a part of that time he was the guest of the then rector Dr. Tanner, and painted these pictures for him’.  J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, London, , no. ; exhibited London, Philip Mould Ltd, ‘Tom will be a Genius’: New Landscapes by the young Thomas Gainsborough, – July , pp. –, no. , illustrated in colour.  By far the most complete source of biographical information on the painter is F. Montecuccoli degli Erri in F. Montecuccoli degli Erri and F. Pedrocco, Michele Marieschi. La vita, l’ambiente, l’opera, Milan, , pp. –.  Pedrocco nos. –; D. Succi, Michele Marieschi: opera completa, Treviso, , nos. –.  Pedrocco no. ; exhibited Treviso, Casa dei Carraresi, Canaletto: Venezia e i suoi Splendori, –, no. ; Succi no. .  Montecuccoli degli Erri in Montecuccoli degli Erri and Pedrocco, pp.  and .  Idem, pp.  and .  Idem, pp. –; Succi, pp. –. ‘ La troppa assiduità alla fatica e allo studio gli causò la morte’ (Guarienti , p. )  Pedrocco no. ; Succi no. .  Pedrocco no. ; Succi no. .  Two of Marieschi’s four children were stillborn, and this one only survived  days (Montecuccoli degli Erri in Montecuccoli degli Erri and Pedrocco, p. ).  ‘J’ay plaisir que vous avez receu les Tableaux … Je crois que vous Les avez placés dans votre Maison de Campagne …’ (Castle Howard archive J//).  See Pedrocco nos. –, –, , –, – and ; Succi no.  (with references to the rest of the set).  W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and later editions, revised by J. G. Links], no. ; exhibited London, Queen’s Gallery, Canaletto & the Art of Venice, , no. .  Idem, no. ; exhibited London, National Gallery, and Washington, National Gallery of Art, Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals, –, no.  (catalogue by C. Beddington).  Montecuccoli degli Erri and Pedrocco, p.; Succi, p. .  Pedrocco no. ; Succi, no. ; exhibited London and Washington –, no. .  From the collection of the Earl of Lisburne, Ireland, this is last recorded with Harari and Johns, London (Venice in Perspective: The First Hundred Years of Venetian View Painting, , no. ); Succi no. .  Sold at Christie’s, London,  December , lot ; Pedrocco no. ; Succi no. . 

5 BERNARDO BELLOTTO Venice: The Grand Canal, looking South-East from the Palazzo Michiel dalle Colonne to the Fondaco dei Tedeschi

BERNARDO BELLOTTO (Venice – Warsaw) Venice: The Grand Canal, looking South-East from the Palazzo Michiel dalle Colonne to the Fondaco dei Tedeschi Oil on canvas  ¾ x  ½ in. (. x . cm.)

In an English giltwood frame of c.  Provenance: Edward Rudge (–), Abbey Manor House, Evesham, Worcestershire, as Canaletto, and by inheritance to the present owners.

This painting has been hidden in an English private collection, and has thus remained unseen and unpublished. It has never been exhibited and there is no evidence that it has ever been on the market, which accounts, at least in part, for its exceptionally fine state of preservation. First recorded in the early nineteenth century as the work of ‘Canaletti’, as which it is possible that it was originally sold, its significance had been long forgotten. It displays all the characteristics of the style of Canaletto’s nephew and pupil Bernardo Bellotto in c. , when the extraordinarily precocious artist was only about seventeen years of age.

The composition derives from Antonio Visentini’s print after Canaletto which was to be published as Part , No.  of the second,  edition of his series of engravings, the Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum. Bellotto has, however, extended the composition at the top to include more sky and at the bottom to include more water. The silvery light, the distinctive colouring, the extensive use of black outlining, the technique of rendering reflections in water, the clouds like scraped icing sugar and the application of the sky in diagonal strokes are all characteristic of his work at this stage in his development. The result is strikingly different from Canaletto’s painting in an Italian private collection which is the prototype of the engraving. Canaletto’s painting formed part of a series of twenty Vene-

tian views, often referred to as the ‘Harvey Group’, executed for Charles Spencer, rd Duke of Marlborough (–), after his succession to the title in . Bellotto must have seen his uncle painting that series. Bellotto’s versions of Canaletto compositions are almost invariably larger than the prototypes, and this is no exception, the prototype measuring  ¾ x  ½ in. (. x . cm.).

An inscription on a label on the back of the frame reads ‘View in Venice - / by A. Canaletti’. An inscription in the same hand on the back of the frame of another painting in the collection records its purchase at a sale in , and inscriptions on the backs of the frames of two others read ‘E J Rudge from Revd Benj Rudge’. This would seem to indicate that the writing is that of Edward John Rudge (–), and in the case of the last two paintings records that he knew that they came from his great-grandfather the Rev. Benjamin Rudge (?–), Rector of Thornhaugh, Northamptonshire. It seems unlikely that a country rector, the tenth child of Edward Rudge (–), would have had the means to buy paintings of the calibre of this Venetian view by Bellotto. While there is apparently no record of any member of the Rudge family visiting Venice in the eighteenth century, the member of the family who certainly had the means was Edward Rudge’s third child John (–). He was a director of the Bank of England from  until his death, its Deputy Governor - and Governor –. He was also a director of the New East India Company –, and Deputy Governor of the South Sea Company –. He served as Mayor of Evesham in , and as its Member of Parliament almost continuously from  until .

John Rudge commissioned a portrait of himself from Isaac Whood in  and a large group portrait from the same painter, signed and dated . That shows Rudge as a widower with the only two survivors of his seven children, most prominently his daughter Susanna, her husband Sir William Stanhope (the rich younger brother of the th Earl of Chesterfield) and their daughter Elizabeth, who was to marry Welbore Ellis, later st Baron Mendip. Behind them is Rudge’s son Edward (–) with his wife Elizabeth.

By John Rudge’s will of  April  his heir was this Edward, his only surviving son, but in the absence of a descendant strictly in the male line his property would pass to his godson John, son of his brother the Rev. Benjamin Rudge. That John was the second surviving son of the Rev. Benjamin Rudge. The heir following strictly the male line would have been

his eldest son Edward Rudge (–), and so it turned out, as on the death without issue of his first cousin Edward Rudge (–), the fortunes of that branch of the family passed to him. Those included the group portrait by Whood, which still belongs to his descendants.

While John Rudge (–) must remain the most likely candidate for the acquisition of the painting, his death on  March , soon after it was painted, must make this at best uncertain, and there are several other members of the family who may have been purchased it. Its first certain owner was Edward Rudge (–), son of Edward Rudge (–), in whose will of  April  it is listed as ‘View in Venice canvas ” x ”

by Canaletti’. It was he who built the family’s country house, Abbey Manor House, Evesham, in , and it was he who acquired the exceptional prints for which the collection has hitherto been known. That was dominated by a comprehensive collection of etchings

by Rembrandt, in many states, but also included works by Rembrandt pupils, as well as Adriaen van Ostade, Karel du Jardin, Anthonie Waterloo, Herman van Swanevelt, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Bartolomeo Biscaino, Pietro Testa, Jacques Callot, Stefano della Bella, Sebastian Bourdon and Christian-Wilhelm-Ernst Dietrich. It was dispersed from Abbey Manor by John Edward Rudge at Christie’s on – December , in  lots, of which  were composed of works by Rembrandt. Frits Lugt described it as ‘le plus grand événement de ce siècle dans le domaine de la gravure’ and a first state impression of the Portrait of Arnold Tholinx made the enormous sum of ,. In the context of this painting it is interesting to note that the print collection was unknown before the  sale; Edward Rudge had stipulated that it must remain intact for three generations, and Lugt had been unable to identify his collector’s mark in .

 W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and subsequent editions revised by J. G. Links], I, pl. ; II, no. ; illustrated in colour in T. Pignatti, Antonio Canal detto Il Canaletto, Florence, , p. , fig. .  A mezzotint of that was made in  by John Faber, Jr; an impression is in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG D).   x  in.  F. Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes, ed. , pp. –, no. , where the collection is discussed in detail.

6 BERNARDO BELLOTTO Men playing Cards and Studies of Gondole and Sandali

BERNARDO BELLOTTO (Venice – Warsaw) Men playing Cards and Studies of Gondole and Sandali Numbered ‘’ and with inscription ‘N Canaletto–’ on the backing Pen and ink on paper with a watermark in the form of a bird  x  ¼ in. (. x . cm.)

Provenance: Anon. Sale, Christie’s, New York,  January , lot , as by Canaletto.

Private Collection, Sicily, as by Canaletto.

Literature: C. Beddington, ‘Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy, Part I: Not Canaletto but Bellotto’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI, No. , October , p. , note .

B.A. Kowalczyk, catalogue of the exhibition Bellotto e Canaletto lo stupore e la luce, Gallerie d’Italia, Milan, -, p. .

This drawing is page  from a sketchbook of which more than a dozen sheets are known, some drawn on both sides, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (two); the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (two); the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; the Courtauld Institute and in private collections.  They are distinguished by their numbering (between  and ), to which is added the inscription ‘uolta’ when the sheet is drawn on both sides. The figure studies are of two types. Two sheets, in the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, each show a single figure on each side and are more Canalettesque than the others. The two figures in the Courtauld sheet correspond closely with two figures in the right foreground in Canaletto’s Campo di Rialto and S. Giacomo di Rialto in the National Gallery of Canada, datable to the mid-s. The majority of the drawings show groups of figures. Although one of them shows a group which occupies the left foreground of Canaletto’s The Piazzetta, looking North, signed and dated  October , in the Royal

Collection, it recurs in part in Bellotto’s The Altmarkt, Dresden, from Seestrasse of – in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, as Michael Pantazzi has pointed out. A more elaborate group is depicted on the verso of a sheet sold at auction in  and purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum. This type of drawing differs from Canaletto’s drawings in the concentration on outline, rendering the figures rather flat, the way that the ground slopes up the page, which has a similar effect on the space, and the same sort of tendency towards caricature in the faces and attitudes that one sees in Bellotto’s early painted figures. The artistic approach is consistent with much later Bellotto drawings now in the National Museum, Warsaw. Curiously, the drawing style resembles more closely that of Luca Carlevarijs than Canaletto. Pantazzi has pointed out that several of the figures do, in fact, derive from Carlevarijs drawings, and more recently Isabella Reale has recognised that several of the figures in one of the sheets in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin are closely related to figures in Carlevarijs’ Regatta on the Grand Canal in Honour of Frederick IV, King of Denmark at Frederiksborg. Four of the drawings are architectural studies. On the recto of the Getty drawing is a view of The North Side of the Campo S. Basso, with the Church, which is intimately connected to a drawing of the adjoining buildings at Berlin, which, numbered ‘’, must have been the next page, as inscriptions on both confirm. Both drawings are further inscribed extensively with notes such as ‘peruchier’ (‘wigmaker’) and ‘più basso di questi’ (‘lower than these’). All the inscriptions in the sketchbook seem to be in the handwriting of Canaletto, but the uncertain perspective, particularly obvious towards the left of the Getty sheet distances them from the structural confidence of Canaletto drawings such as those in the Accademia sketchbook and rules out a draughtsman of such experience as a candidate for the drawings themselves. Larissa Haskell first suggested Bellotto as the author of one of the sheets of figure studies in , and her idea was subsequently discussed at some length by Terisio Pignatti, who saw Canaletto’s authorship of the single figure sheets and Bellotto’s of the groups as ‘a hypothesis not easily rejected’. There seems no reason to doubt that all the sheets come from the same sketchbook, and Beddington, loc. cit., proposed Bellotto as the only possible candidate for the authorship of all the drawings, with the possible exception of the single figure studies, the inscriptions on them by Canaletto showing the master commenting on his pupil’s work and adding notes to assist their possible later use in the

studio. The attribution has since been endorsed by Bozena Kowalczyk, and is generally accepted. This sheet was until recently obscured by graphite shading. The figure of a youth in a turban in a sandalo resembles one in Canaletto’s Accademia sketchbook, sheet v.

See W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, nd edition edited by J. G. Links, Oxford, , nos. –,  and –*****, W. G. Constable: Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, nd edition edited by J. G. Links, reissued with supplement and additional plates, Oxford, , I, pp. lxxxiii–lxxxvi, and J. G. Links: A Supplement to W. G. Constable’s Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, London, , no. *.  Constable/Links , nos.  and ; numbered ‘’ and ‘’ respectively. The latter was included in K. Baetjer and J. G. Links, catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, –, no. .  Constable, no. .  The suggestion in R. Bromberg, Canaletto’s Etchings, London and New York, , p. , that the verso was also used for Canaletto’s etching Mestre (her no. ) seems unconvincing.  Constable/Links , no. **.  Constable, no. .  S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, Recklinghausen and London, , no. .  M. Laskin, Jr. and M. Pantazzi, Catalogue of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, European and American Painting, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, I: 1300–1800, Ottawa, , text volume, p. .  Sale Sotheby’s, New York,  January , lot , as Canaletto. The sheet is Constable/Links , no. , although the appearance of the verso was unknown before the  sale.  See, for instance, Kozakiewicz, nos. , B,  and –.  Laskin and Pantazzi, op. cit. (note ), pp. –.  I. Reale and D. Succi, Catalogue of the exhibition Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, , p.  and fig. , as Canaletto.  Constable, no. ().  A. Rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs, Venice, , pls. –.  Constable, no. ; Baetjer and Links, op. cit. (note ), no. .  L. Haskell: ‘Venetian Drawings at the Heim Gallery’, The Burlington Magazine, CXIV, , p. .  T. Pignatti: ‘Venetian Drawings of the Eighteenth Century’, Master Drawings, , , pp. –.  B.A. Kowalczyk, Catalogue of the exhibition Canaletto: Il trionfo della veduta, Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, , pp. –, nos. –, loc. cit., -, and elsewhere.  Sotheby’s, London, however, sold a sheet as Canaletto as recently as  July , lot . 

7 BERNARDO BELLOTTO Rome: The Piazza del Popolo

BERNARDO BELLOTTO (Venice – Warsaw) Rome: The Piazza del Popolo With inventory number  (in red, lower right) Oil on canvas  ¼ x  ¼ in. (. x . cm.)

Provenance: [Th.?] Miller Kaye, Broadwater (th century inscription in ink on a label on the reverse).

With Gaston Neumans, Paris, from whom purchased by forebears of the present owners in the s.

This painting, apparently unrecorded, is a major addition to the group of Roman views executed by Bellotto in c. , when he was only twenty-one years old but already one of the greatest masters of eighteenth-century Italian view painting. It is a close version of a published painting of almost identical size ( ¼ x  ⅞ in.; . x . cm.), which was itself recently rediscovered. This painting, apart from being in superior condition, would seem qualitatively to be the prime version. Its re-emergence is unexpected, as no other Roman composition by Bernardo is known in two so similar versions.

The Piazza del Popolo held a particular significance for most visitors to Rome as their first experience of the city, situated as it is directly inside the Porta del Popolo, at the end of the Via Flaminia, the main route to the city from the north. The view depicted by Bellotto is still clearly recognisable today, although the twin churches of Santa Maria di Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli, flanking the entrance to the Via del Corso, had not yet been augmented with campanili, and the square is shown before the extensive alterations made

by Giuseppe Valadier between  and . Valadier set the obelisk of Seti I on a base with fountains in the form of lions at the corners, and removed the earlier fountain, which is now in Piazza Nicosia. His spectacular linking of the square with the Pincian Hill necessitated the destruction of the wall and gateway of the gardens of the Augustian fathers of Santa Maria del Popolo, shown here on the left. The towers of Santa Trinità dei Monti are shown beyond the Via del Babuino to the left of centre.

The Piazza del Popolo had been one of the favourite subjects of Gaspar van Wittel, called Gaspare Vanvitelli (/–), the father of the eighteenth century Italian school of view painting, who depicted it some seventeen times in oil or tempera.  An engraving of  follows a lost drawing by Vanvitelli which is one of his first known views, and a version in tempera is his earliest known dated work. Vanvitelli consistently adopted a high viewpoint slightly to the right of the central axis for his representations of the square, as did his successor as the great resident painter of Roman views, Giovanni Paolo Panini (–). Unlike Vanvitelli, Bellotto adopts a viewpoint almost at street level, and a composition, in many ways more satisfactory, in which the obelisk balances the twin churches. This is borrowed from the earlier engraving by Giovanni Battista Falda (–). No depiction

by Canaletto of the square is known; the surviving drawings from his only visit to Rome in –, five of which were used by Bellotto for paintings, are mostly of the ancient rather than the modern city. It is possible, however, that one existed, as one or more of the early variants of the composition may be attributable to Canaletto’s father (and Bellotto’s grandfather) Bernardo Canal (–), who often borrowed his son’s compositions; others may be by Jacopo Fabris (–), who left Italy for Northern Europe definitively in . Both this painting and the previously known version are entirely characteristic of Bellotto’s first mature style in every respect: the solidity of the buildings, the extensive use of black, the sky below the clouds turning into horizontal bands, the calligraphy of the texturing of the wall on the left, the undulating shadows, one of which forms a step into the painting across the lower edge, and the forms of the trees and figures. Several of the figures are Bellotto types which recur in other works, notably the four figures carrying sticks – the pilgrims by the fountain and silhouetted at the lower right, the gentleman visitor pointing with his cane and the old woman seen from behind. Both paintings are consistent with other views of Rome executed shortly after the painter’s visit presumably in the spring of , and are the same size as several of them: The Pantheon (Dayton Art Institute), The Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, The Forum from the Temple of Castor and Pollux to the Church of Santa Francesca Romana (last recorded in the Ponti-Loren Collection), and a pair showing The Forum with the Temple of Castor and Pollux looking towards the Capitol and The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Forum (once at Paxton House).

Gaston Neumans, who sold the painting to predecessors of the present owners in the s, sold a number of significant Venetian view paintings in the decade, including The Piazza San Marco, looking South and West by Canaletto in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, and four paintings by Bellotto which were until then at Paxton House, including the pair mentioned above.

The earlier provenance is yet to be elucidated. The very high inventory number suggests a collection of considerable grandeur, while ‘Miller Kaye / Broadwater’ may well be easier to identify. Given the similarity between the two versions, it is possible that one or more of the photographs published as of the other version do, in fact, represent this.

Exhibited Charles Beddington Ltd, Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy & a masterpiece by Francesco Guardi, – July , cat. no. , illustrated in colour.  To the versions published by G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, nd ed., ed. L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan, , pp. –, nos. –, may be added a previously unrecorded oil sold at Sotheby’s, London,  July , lot , and a previously unrecorded tempera sold at Sotheby’s, London,  July , lot .  Ibid., illustrated p. .  F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del ’700, Rome, , nos. – and .  Published in Il Nuovo Teatro delle Fabriche et Edificii in Prospettiva di Roma Moderna, I, Rome, , pl.

VII.  W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and subsequent editions revised by J. G. Links], nos. (–).  Versions include: Anon. Sale, Christophe Joron-Derem, Hôtel Drouot, Paris,  March , lot  (as ‘Atelier d’Antonio Joli’); Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia (Constable, op. cit., no. (aa), pl.  in the  and later editions); Christie’s, London,  May , lot ; formerly in the collection of Baroness Gabriele Bentinck (ibid., no. (d); S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London, , II, no. Z ); and Sotheby’s, New York,  January , lot  (as Giacomo van Lint).  First identified as Bellotto’s work by C. Beddington, ‘Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy, Part I: Not Canaletto but Bellotto’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI, No. , October , pp. –, fig.  (colour).  Exhibited Venice, Museo Correr, and Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, , no.  (entry by C. Beddington); offered at Sotheby’s,  July , lot ; subsequently with Robilant & Voena, London.  Offered at Christie’s, London,  July , lot ; subsequently with Cesare Lampronti, Rome.  Kozakiewicz, op. cit., no. .  Catalogue of the Venice and Houston exhibition, , nos. – (entry by C. Beddington); sold at Christie’s, London,  December , lot . 

8 GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO Mestre, with the Canale delle Barche

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO (Venice –)

C. Crawley in K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, with an Appendix by Charlotte Crawley, Bologna, , p. .

Mestre, with the Canale delle Barche

This, Canaletto’s only large-scale view of Mestre, shows the foremost point of departure for boats going to Venice from the mainland.

Oil on canvas  x  ⅞ in. (. x  cm.)

Provenance: The Viscounts Ashbrook, Castle Durrow, Queen’s County, Ireland (demolished ).

Robert D. Fleming, Devonshire; sale, Christie’s,  July , lot .

With Agnew’s, London.

Sir George Leon, nd Bt., Bracknell, Berkshire, and by inheritance to Lady Leon.

John Y. Sangster, Canada, by .

Anon. Sale, Christie’s, New York,  January , lot .

With Simon C. Dickinson Ltd, from whom purchased in  by a UK private collector.

Exhibited: London, Agnew’s, European Paintings from an English County,  June– July , no. .

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canaletto,  October– November , p. , no. , illustrated (catalogue by W. G. Constable).

Literature: R. Pallucchini and G. F. Guarnati, Le Aquaforti di Canaletto, Venice, , under no. .

K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Antonio Canaletto in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Oxford/London, , p. , under no. .

W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and editions, Oxford,  and , revised by J. G. Links], I, pl. ; II, no.  and under no. .

L. Puppi, L’opera completa del Canaletto, Milan, , no.  A, illustrated.

J. G. Links, Canaletto. The Complete Paintings, London, , no. , illustrated.

A. Corboz, Canaletto: Una Venezia immaginaria, Milan, , II, p. , no. p , illustrated.

The tonality, colour and handling indicate that this painting should be dated within Canaletto’s years in England (–). The format is the same as that of the artist’s horizontal panels painted in London, although it had also been used earlier for two canvases for the Duke of Kent. The painter, who often took compositions from graphic sources, used his own etching of the early s. That was itself based on a drawing originally owned by Joseph Smith and now in the Royal Collection. Two small versions are known, both datable after . One, formerly in the collection of C. P. Norbury, Malvern, was sold with a pendant of Dolo at Sotheby’s, London,  December , lot , and is now in the Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse. Another, sold at Christie’s,  December , lot , is now in a private collection. That probably also originally had a pendant of Dolo, sold at Sotheby’s, London,  December , lot . A copy, following this painting in details of colour but of larger size ( x  in.,  x . cm.) is at Dorneywood House (National Trust, NT ). � purchased by a private collector

See no.  in this catalogue and Constable, op. cit., I, pl. ; II, no. .

Idem, nos.  and (b).  R. Bromberg, Canaletto’s Etchings, London and New York, , pp. –, no. , illustrated.  Parker, op. cit., no. , pl. ; Constable, op. cit., I, pl. , II, no. ; Bromberg, op. cit., p. , illustrated; exhibited Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Canaletto, Disegni-Dipinti-Incisioni, , pp. –, no. , illustrated; exhibited London, Queen’s Gallery, Canaletto & the Art of Venice, , no. , illustrated in colour.  . x  cm.; Constable, loc. cit., under no. .  Constable, loc. cit.,  &  eds., I, pl. ; II, no. *.  Constable, op. cit., I, pl. ; II, no. .  

9 GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO Old Somerset House from the River Thames

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO (Venice –) Old Somerset House from the River Thames Oil on chamfered mahogany panel  ⅝ x  ⅞ in. (. x  cm.)

Provenance: Possibly the painting shown by William Stevenson, fsa (c. –), a publisher, author and pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Norwich, to the Society of Antiquaries, Somerset House, London, on  November  and purchased by them from him on  December  for  guineas.

(Probably) Henry Rhodes, by ; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, London,  March  [=th day], lot , as ‘Canaletti – View of Old Somerset House, from the Thames, with figures in boats – a capital example’ ( guineas to Goldsmid).

(Possibly) Mrs Russell Gurney; sale, Christie’s, London,  March , lot , as ‘Canaletti – View of Old Somerset House, from the river’ ( guineas to Martin Colnaghi).

Probably the painting (said to be from the Ashburnham Collection) which was purchased

by Agnew’s, London, from A. J. Sulley & Co., London, in , and sold by them back to Sulley in  (see below).

With W. Freeman & Co., London, from whom purchased in  for  by Sir Berkeley Sheffield, th Bt, and by descent at Sutton Park, Yorkshire to Sir Reginald Sheffield, th Bt, by whom sold through Simon C. Dickinson Ltd. to the present owner in April .

Exhibited: (Probably) London, Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, , no.  (lent by Henry Rhodes).

New Haven (CT), Yale Center for British Art,  October– December , and London, Dulwich Picture Gallery,  January– April , Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746–1755, pp. –, no. , illustrated in colour and with a colour detail, and p. , under no.  (catalogue by C. Beddington).

Literature: W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and editions, Oxford,  and , revised by J. G. Links], II, no. (a) and/or no. (c) and/or no. (d).

J. G. Links, A Supplement to W. G. Constable’s Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697– 1768, London, , p. , no. *.

(Possibly) P. Tudor-Craig, J. A. Franklin and B. Nurse, Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London, London, , p. .

C. Beddington, ‘Canaletto en Angleterre’ in the catalogue of the exhibition Éblouissante Venise. Venise, les arts et l’Europe au XVIIIe siècle, Grand Palais, Paris,  September –  January , p. , fig.  (colour).

Built in - for Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, Somerset House was by far the most important of the large mansions of the pre-Reformation era which backed onto the Thames. After Somerset’s execution in  it was used occasionally by Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth, and subsequently became the residence of a succession of British queens, Anne of Denmark (–), Henrietta Maria (– and –) and Catherine of Braganza (–). It was for Henrietta Maria that the gallery was added to the river front in –, probably by John Webb, possibly to a design by Inigo Jones, who certainly designed the river stairs of – and the Queen’s Chapel of –. Jones had an apartment in the house and died there in . Between  and  Somerset House was mostly let out as grace and favour residences, its tenants including foreign ambassadors; the Venetian envoy was living there by . In  it was demolished, to be replaced by the present building designed by Sir William Chambers and begun in , the Strand block of which housed the Royal Academy of Arts from  until  and now houses the Courtauld Institute of Art. This painting, one of the foremost Canaletto rediscoveries of recent years, remained unpublished until  apart from a brief mention by J. G. Links, and a probable listing (or listings) by Constable (see below). Until the mid-s a larger version on canvas, currently in a UK private collection, was accepted as the prototype ( ⅜ x  ⅜ in., . x  cm.; Constable, op. cit., I, pl. ; II, no. ; Links, op. cit., p. , pl. ), being sold as

such at Christie’s, New York,  June  (lot ), and exhibited as such at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (by whom it was acquired in ), at Somerset House itself in  (when it was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue of the exhibition London and the Thames), at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (on loan, ), in the exhibition Canaletto & England at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery – (no. ) and at the Courtauld Institute Galleries (on loan,  and ). That must now be seen as a copy of this painting, albeit of early date and of superior quality to most copies.

While the colouring is identical, it differs from this painting in showing more water at the bottom and more sky at the top, and in a number of minor details. Most telling among those is its omission of the dog beyond the round pond, which renders meaningless the gesture of the boy raising his stick. Another, weaker early derivation by an English hand, also corresponding in colour, was sold at Christie’s, London, in  and  as by Canaletto, and is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (W. G. Constable, ‘Canaletto in England: Some Further Works’, The Burlington Magazine, I, No. , January , pp. – , pl. I B; Constable, op. cit., , II, no. (b)), with a pendant of Northumberland House also based on a Canaletto composition (painting in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland). That would seem to further testify to the availability of the present painting to contemporary copyists.

A finished drawing with minor variations but clearly preparatory to this painting is in the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (no.  in the – exhibition, illustrated in colour).

This painting is one of only three known paintings on panel by Canaletto, the others being views of The Interior of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey in the Museum of London and of The New Horse Guards in a private collection (currently on loan to Tate Britain). It might be surmised that the artist’s use of this support – unusual at this date – may have been influenced by his lodging with a cabinet maker, Richard Wiggans in Silver Street, now Beak Street, Soho. The surfaces of the present painting and that in the Museum of London both have indentations around the edges, suggesting that they were framed before the paint was completely dry.

Although Links states that ‘nothing is known of the origin’ of the painting, according to a note in the family records of the last owner it was purchased in  for  from

W. Freeman & Co. of London. That would seem to make probable its identification as the painting which was with Agnew’s, London, in –. Constable records the size as almost identical and states that it ‘differs from the Minneapolis picture in details … From a photograph certainly by Canaletto’; the only discrepancy is that the support is given as canvas, but in this he might have been repeating the error he also made over one of the only two other paintings on panel, The Interior of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey in the Museum of London, which he also described as on canvas (conversely, Constable, nos.  and , which are described as on panel, are on canvas laid down). Obviously the photograph which Constable saw should confirm or refute this, but it is not among his papers. Constable records that the painting was ‘said to be from the Ashburnham Collection’. That would be of particular interest, as, if correct, it might establish Sir Humphrey Morice (–), a director of the Bank of England, as yet another owner of Venetian views by Canaletto who also bought English period paintings from the artist. His pair of views on copper of the Venetian waterfront (Constable, nos.  and ) were bought with the rest of his collection by the nd Earl of Ashburnham in , remaining in the family until their sale at Sotheby’s, London, in . This painting is not, however, recorded in the Ashburnham sales at Christie’s, London, in  or .

Alternatively, a painting matching this description is recorded in the Council Minutes of the Society of Antiquaries of London in . The Minutes for  November  record that "Mr Stevenson [William Stevenson fsa (c. –), a publisher, author and pupil of Reynolds, of Norwich] exhibited also to the Society [along with a seal matrix and  drawings of Norwich] a very fine picture representing the back of Old Somerset House and Garden by Canalletti... This picture, says Mr Stevenson, a complete facsimile, is  feet  inches by  foot  inches: having been painted in varnish, the sun has cracked it, but in other respects it is as perfect as possible... Mr Comyns of Crown Street, Westminster, one of the first judges of a picture, speaks to its originality." The Society's Minutes for  December  note "Ordered that Mr Treasurer be empowered to pay to William Stevenson Esq... eight guineas for a curios picture by Canaletti of the Old Front of Somerset House towards the water." No mention is made of the painting’s support. There is no further mention of the painting in the records of the Society, which was then sharing the Strand front of Somerset House with the Royal Society and Royal Academy and lost four paintings in – due to administrative errors.

It would seem to be very probable that the present painting is that lent by Henry Rhodes, Joint Architect to Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, to the Society of British Artists in ; it was the top lot in the five day posthumous sale of his collection at Christie’s in , the front page reading “The Pictures comprise a capital Example of Canaletti; and beautiful works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, De Witte, Ruysdael, De Hooghe, Van da Capella, Ferg, &c.” Lot  of , it sold for the considerable sum of  guineas. The painting may also be that of matching description sold by Mrs Russell Gurney at Christie’s in , to judge from the similarly large price obtained,  guineas, and the fact that the purchaser was the astute dealer Martin Colnaghi.

10 GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor’s Procession, 25 May 1750

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, called CANALETTO (Venice –) Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor’s Procession, 25 May 1750 Signed and inscribed on the reverse (see below).

Oil on canvas  ⅜ x  ¼ in. (. x . cm.)

Provenance: Painted for William Barnard, Bishop of Derry (d. ), the King’s House, Chapelizod, near Dublin, and subsequently Ranelagh, County Dublin.

Peter Purcell, County Kildare.

His grandson Colonel McDonnell.

On the Dublin art market.

Thomas Bodkin, Dublin, by .

Donald Howard, rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (–), Colonsay House, Isle of Colonsay, Argyll, by .

His son, Euan Howard, th Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal.

With David Carritt Ltd., London, .

Private Collection, Washington, DC. Anon. Sale, Ader Tajan, Paris,  March , lot .

Acquired by the present owner through Simon C. Dickinson Ltd. in March .

Exhibited: London, Somerset House, London and the Thames: Paintings of Three Centuries,  July– October , no. .

New Haven (CT), Yale Center for British Art,  October– December , and London, Dulwich Picture Gallery,  January– April , Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746–1755, pp. –, no. , illustrated in colour (catalogue by C. Beddington).

Literature: W. G. Constable, ‘Canaletto in England: Some Further Works’, The Burlington Magazine, I, no. , January , p. .

W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford,  [and nd edition, revised by J. G. Links, Oxford, ], I, pp.  and ; II, no.  (incorrectly described as pl. ).

L. Puppi, L’opera completa del Canaletto, Milan, , no.  A (incorrectly illustrated).

R. J. B. Walker, Old Westminster Bridge: The Bridge of Fools, London, , p. .

J. G. Links, Canaletto. The Complete Paintings, London, , no.  (incorrectly illustrated).

W. G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, nd ed. revised by J. G. Links, Oxford, , I, pp. lxi–lxii, lxiii and lxvii,  and , pl. ; II, no.  and p. .

J. G. Links, A Supplement to W. G. Constable’s Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697– 1768, London, , pp. –, pls.  and  (the inscription on the reverse).

C. Beddington, ‘Canaletto en Angleterre’ in the catalogue of the exhibition Éblouissante Venise. Venise, les arts et l’Europe au XVIIIe siècle, Grand Palais, Paris, –, p. , fig.  (colour).

Walker identifies the subject as the state procession of John Blachford of the Company of Goldsmiths to Westminster to be sworn in as Lord Mayor on  May . That was much smaller than the usual October pageant, and Blachford ‘went in the City Barge, attended only by the Goldsmiths’ Barge’ (The Gentleman’s Magazine, , , p. ). Links accepts this identification (in Constable, op. cit., , I, pp. lxi–lxii), which assumes that the presence of two additional barges is due to artistic license. Although the bridge was by then almost finished, Canaletto has, as in the painting of the same view in the Yale Center for British Art, erroneously shown shelters for pedestrians over all the piers, rather than just those in the centre and at both ends, as well as the statues of Thames and Isis which were never installed.

During relining in  the canvas was found to be signed and inscribed on the reverse: ‘Antonio Canaleto fecit, con Ogni Stima, e Rispeto / All’Eccellentissimo Sig:r Gulielmo Vescovo / di Deri’ (Links, op. cit., , pl. ; Beddington, op. cit., , fig. .). As Links points out (in Constable, op. cit., , I, p. lxii), this must refer to William Barnard, who became Bishop of Derry on  March . Although he was born in London and

spent his last years there, around the time that the painting was executed Barnard was living at the King’s House in Chapelizod, near Dublin, which was secured for him by his brother-in-law Archbishop Stone, the primate. In  Mrs. Delany often dined with the Bishop, whose collection of pictures she much admired (The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany ..., edited by Lady Llanover, London, –).

A refinement of that of Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor’s Procession, 29 October 1746 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Paul Mellon Collection; no.  in the – exhibition, illustrated in colour), with the viewpoint moved to the Surrey bank of the Thames, this is one of the most important of all Canaletto’s English compositions, known in three drawn and three painted versions. The prime drawing must be that first recorded in the collection of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, nd Bt. (–), and still at Stourhead, Wiltshire (since  the property of the National Trust; Constable, op. cit., , I, pl. ; II, no. (b)). That differs from the other drawings in showing the bridge rising more steeply toward the centre, and from this in including four barges identifying the subject as Lord Mayor’s Day; Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s grandfather Sir Richard Hoare (–) had been Lord Mayor in  (as had his great, great grandfather Sir Richard Hoare (–) in ). A second drawing is in the British Museum (no.  in the Yale part of the – exhibition, illustrated in colour). The version in the Royal Collection, smaller than the other two and the least delicate in handling, omitting, for instance, the pennant on St. Margaret’s, Westminster, is the only one which shows the correct arrangement of pedestrian shelters (although still showing incorrectly the statues of Thames and Isis never installed over the central arch); that must be the latest in date, made expressly for Joseph Smith (Constable, op. cit., , I, pl. ; II, no. ).

Of the three paintings of the composition, which all measure approximately  x  in., this is probably the earliest. A variant in an English private collection, with a pendant of The City from the Terrace of Somerset House, seems to show the same event, although the barges are differently positioned and more prominent (Constable, op. cit., , I, pl. , incorrectly captioned as no. ; II, no. (a)). Canaletto returned to the composition for what must be his last view of Westminster Bridge, painted in  for Thomas Hollis (Catalogue of the – exhibition, fig. ., colour; Constable, op. cit., , II, no. (b), as untraced; exhibited Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Canaletto: Disegni-Dipinti-Incisioni,

, no. , and London, Barbican Art Gallery, The Image of London: Views by Travellers and Emigrés 1550–1920, , no. ; Links, op. cit., , p. , pl. ). In that the barges are omitted and the composition is – surprisingly – adapted to show the appearance of the bridge in June–July , with the two arches being rebuilt; Canaletto may well have felt that this variation justified his statement in a ‘certificate’ on the reverse, similar to those on four of the five other paintings for Hollis (Cat. nos. ,  and  in the – exhibition, and fig. , but not cat. no. ), that the subject was done for him ‘for the first and last time’.

Charles Beddington Limited 16 Savile Row, London w1s 3pl +44 (0)20 7439 4959 www.charlesbeddington.com

Catalogue designed by Simon Rendall & printed by Empress Litho Ltd, London se18 5pq