Giovanni Battista Cimaroli

Sir William Fitzherbert, Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, by 1911 (as Canaletto);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1981, lot 74 (as an early work by Canaletto, with possible intervention from another hand);
There purchased by the father of the present collector.

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Venetian Painting of the Eighteenth Century, 1911, no. 49 (as Canaletto, lent by Fitzherbert).

R. Fry, C.F. Bell and T. Borenius, Venetian Painting of the Eighteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, London 1911, cat. no. 49 (as by Canaletto);
W.G. Constable, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768, vol. II, Oxford 1989, pp. 314-315, no. 254 (as an early work by Canaletto, with possible intervention from another hand);
A. Bettagno and B.A. Kowalczyk, Canaletto, il Trionfo della Veduta, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2005, p. 120;
C. Beddington and A. Bradley, Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals, exhibition catalogue, London 2010, p. 100;
F. Spadotto, Giovan Battista Cimaroli, Rovigo 2011, p. 234, cat. no. 77, reproduced p. 235.

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 a glue lining, which is still effective. The fairly heavy canvas is well supported. The painting is quite dirty and will respond well to restoration. The condition is visibly very good throughout the buildings and the foreground. There are no visible restorations of any note, either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye, in these areas. As is very often the case, the paint layer has become slightly thin in places in the sky, revealing the typical dark burgundy ground color. The restorations here have discolored over time, and they are certainly to be expected for a work of this scale and from this period. The only area where these restorations are slightly more concentrated is in the upper center, upper left and center left. This picture would be a joy to restore and would look significantly better as a result.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This extraordinary view of the Canal Grande was exhibited at the Burlington Arts Club in 1911 while in the collection of Sir William Fitzherbert, as a work by Antonio Canal, called Canaletto.  Such is the outstanding quality of the work, it was later published by William G. Constable as “undoubtedly by Canaletto,” dating it to the late 1720s or early 1730s, rationalizing the deviation from Canaletto’s usual treatment of figures here as being due to the intervention of a different hand.¹  It was Charles Beddington who not only restored this painting to its rightful author, Giovanni Battista Cimaroli but indeed elevated the status of that artist, classing him among those dubbed the rivals of Canaletto.²

This particular view, showing the Canal Grande with the church of San Geremia, Palazzo Labia behind it, and the entrance to the Cannareggio, bridged by the Ponte delle Guglie, was also chosen by Canaletto for a composition formerly in the collection of his patron, Joseph Smith, and now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.³  Cimaroli’s composition differs from the Windsor picture, not only in its vertical format and slight extension of perspective to the left, but more interestingly in his omission of the low balustrade in front of the Scuoletta dei Morti and the statue of San Giovanni Nepomuceno erected on the corner, at the juncture of the Cannareggio and Canal Grande in 1742.  Federica Spadotto associates the present painting with a preparatory drawing by Antonio Visentini, dated July 1734, and its subsequent engraving published in Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum in 1735 (plate X, see fig. 1).⁴  Like the Visentini drawing, the present Cimaroli painting and two other versions by the artist (both in horizontal format and each in private collections, see F. Spadotto under Literature, op. cit., cat. nos. 75 and 76) omit the large window on the side of the church which is in fact present, not only the Windsor picture but indeed in the later engraving, a detail which Spadotto ascribes to “una contaminazione di referenti tematici da parte di Giovanni Battista”.⁵

1.  See W.G. Constable under Literature, op. cit., p. 314.
2.  See C. Beddington and A. Bradley under Literature.
3.  W.G. Constable, op. cit., pp. 311-313, cat. no. 251, reproduced vol. II, plate 51, no. 251.
4.  See F. Spadotto, op. cit., fig. 43.
5.  Ibid., translates: “a contamination of thematic points of reference on Giovanni Battista’s part.”