Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto

The Dukes of Grafton, before 1882;
Thence by descent to Alfred William Maitland, 8th Duke of Grafton;
By whom sold ("Sold by Direction of the Trustees of His Grace The Duke of Grafton, K.G."), London, Christie's, July 13, 1923, lot 134, as "A. Canaletto", for £336 to Puttick;
With E. Speelman, London;
With Leggatt Bros., London, January 1948;
With Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, by whom sold in October 1949 to Lord Lyle;
By inheritance to Mrs. Charles Wood, by 1959;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Christie's, November 21, 1975, lot 44;
Dino Fabbri;
His anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, November 1, 1978, lot 55 (where unsold);
With P. and D. Colnaghi, New York, 1983;
With Heim Gallery, London, from whom purchased by the present owner in 1987.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Works of the Old Masters, 1882, no. 264;
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1911, no. 79;
London, Guildhall, Canaletto in England, June 10 - July 11, 1959, no. 19;
New York, P. and D. Colnaghi, Views from the Grand Tour, May 25 - June 30, 1983, no. 7, reproduced in color.

H. Finberg, "Canaletto in England", in The Walpole Society, vol. IX, 1920-21, pp. 69-70;
P. Jeannerat, "Thames-side Masterpieces", in Daily Mail Ideal Home Book 1950-51, ed. M. Sherman, London 1950, reproduced;
W.G. Constable, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, Oxford 1962 (and subsequent editions revised by J.G. Links), Vol. I, plate 78; Vol. II, cat. no. 427;
L. Puppi, L'Opera Completa del Canaletto, Milan 1968, p. 133, cat. no. 264A, reproduced (as datable to circa 1746-47);
J.G. Links, Canaletto. The Complete Paintings, London 1981, no. 212, reproduced;
R. Kingzett, "A Catalogue of the Works of Samuel Scott," in The Walpole Society, XLVIII, 1982, p. 54;
M. Liversidge & J. Farrington, Canaletto & England, exhibition catalogue, London 1993, p. 79, under no. 18;
J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, London 1998, p. 40, cat. no. 427;
C. Beddington, Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755, exhibition catalogue, New Haven and London 2006, p. 76.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been quite recently restored and should be hung in its current condition. The canvas is lined and the paint layer has been cleaned, varnished and retouched. The retouches are all clearly visible under ultraviolet light throughout the sky and address some thinness which has revealed the warmer, darker ground color and in the water. Some thinness has developed, although to a considerably lesser degree, and a few isolated retouches have also been added in the darker colors of the buildings in the foreground. However, the bulk of the retouching is in the sky, which is quite acceptable and predictable for pictures of this period, and the topographical elements are all in healthy state.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This expansive view of the River Thames, looking towards Westminster from the east, was probably executed shortly after Canaletto completed the large pen and brown ink drawing of the same view in the Paul Mellon collection, New Haven (fig. 1).¹  While it seems very likely that both drawing and painting were executed shortly after the artist's arrival in London in May 1746, this view is somewhat confounded by Canaletto's depiction of Westminster Bridge as only partly built. The architect's 1751 report on the bridge,² which finally opened in 1750, states that it was near completion by May 1746 and indeed was completed on October 25, 1746. It may be, therefore, that either the architect's retrospective report is inaccurate, or more likely and as suggested by Jane Farrington,³ Canaletto may have purposefully manipulated the image, depicting the bridge mid-construction, for one of several reasons; perhaps to draw attention to London's status as the centre of modern engineering, a notion emphasised by the prominent positioning of the wooden water tower of the York Buildings Waterworks; or he may have simply removed the southern arches in order to include the view of Lambeth Palace, which would have otherwise been obscured, giving the painting a greater sense of depth. The practice of manipulating images of Westminster Bridge for artistic purposes or otherwise was not uncommon. In a work dated 1750, Samuel Scott depicted the bridge from the Surrey shore as it would have appeared circa 1742, only the four central arches partly built, mid-stream, and indeed he omits Hawksmoor's second tower of Westminster Abbey which had been completed in 1745.⁴

Canaletto painted several views of Westminster Bridge, at various stages of completion, but he seems to have ceased depicting this particular landmark soon after the bridge's opening in 1750. The first stones of the bridge had been laid in 1738 and the twelve-year building program was to be the major public construction project of the mid-eighteenth century. Although the bridge was in fact completed on October 25, 1746 it then underwent four years of rectifications due to subsidence issues on the fifth pier from the Westminster side, and it did not open to the public until 1750. The majority of Canaletto's painted views of the bridge are from the north and include the full expanse of the bridge, in its completed, or very near complete, state, and the bridge is the focal point of the work. With the present work however Canaletto concentrates on the western shore of the Thames; most prominent is the York Water Tower (at the end of modern day Villiers Street) and behind it is the house in which Samuel Pepys lived; moving left are Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, and two of the towers of St. John the Evangelist.

While the early provenance of this work is not known, it was almost certainly painted for an English client, of which Canaletto accumulated many from the very beginning of his sojourn. Even before he arrived in London his paintings were extensively collected by the English who, as Grand Tourists, had first come across his view paintings in Venice in the early 1720s. Before arriving in London Canaletto had executed commissions for the 2^nd Duke of Richmond and Sir Hugh Smithson, later Earl and Duke of Northumberland, and soon after his arrival he was patronised by the 9^th Duke of Norfolk, the 4^th Earl of Chesterfield, the 5^th Lord King and Sir Richard Neave, to name but a few. While the present painting is recorded in the collection of the Dukes of Grafton before 1882, it is likely to have entered their collection much earlier, perhaps during the 18^th century when Canaletto's works were most widely collected by the English aristocracy, and when the family were at their most prominent, the 3^rd Duke, Augustus Fitzroy (1735-1811), serving as prime minister from 1768-1770. Another painting of the same view, but with ten arches of the bridge visible and completed, was formerly in the Higginson collection at Saltmarshe Castle before being acquired by the Douglas-Pennant family for Penrhyn Castle in the nineteenth century. Links dated this latter to 1750 or after on the basis of the bridge being complete.

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

1  See Liversidge, under literature, p. 79, no. 18, reproduced.
2  C. Labelye, Description of Westminster Bridge, 1751.
3  Liversidge and Farrington, op. cit., p. 79. 
4  Sold London, Sotheby's, July 5, 2005, lot 31.