The Lyon Master

J.W. Best, 19 Tranby Lane, Anlaby, near Hull;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 4 March 1932, lot 143, for 40 Guineas to Duits (as Canaletto);
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady of Title'), London, Christie's, 6 April 1984, lot 72 for £70,200 to Colnaghi, and lot 73 for £37,800 to Colnaghi (as attributed to Bernardo Bellotto);
With Colnaghi, London, 1985 (as Bernardo Bellotto);
Private collection, Cologne;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 14 December 2000, lot 90 (as Bernardo Bellotto).

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, on loan 1991–95.

D. Succi, 'La Venècia de l'altre "Canaletto": el jove Bernardo Bellotto' in the exhibition catalogue Canaletto: Una Venècia Imaginària, Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelona, 20 February–13 May 2001, pp. 48–49, fig. 9, The Salute reproduced in colour (as Bernardo Bellotto);
D. Succi, 'La Venecia del otro "Canaletto": el joven Bernardo Bellotto' in the exhibition catalogue Canaletto: Una Venecia Imaginaria, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 29 May–2 September 2001, p.70, The Salute reproduced fig. 9 (as Bernardo Bellotto);
C. Beddington, 'Review of Canaletto: Una Venecia imaginaria, ed. Dario Succi and Annalia Delneri', The Burlington Magazine, CXLIV, no. 1186, January 2002, p. 35;
C. Beddington, 'Bernardo Bellotto and His Circle in Italy. Part II: The Lyon Master and Pietro Bellotti', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 147, no. 1222, January 2005, pp. 16–25.

The following condition report is provided by Alex France who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: "Venice, the entrance to the Grand Canal, looking east" Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooded stretcher. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. There are scattered fine lines of craquelure. These appear entirely stable and are not visually distracting. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a discoloured varnish layer which prevents the uv light from fully penetrating. Inspection under ultra-violet light also shows scattered retouchings throughout the sky, a few small spots and lines within the architecture on the right of the composition, small spots and lines of strengthening to the gondolas and some further strengthening to the architecture on the left of the composition. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and no work is required. "Venice, the Molo, looking west from the Bacino di San Marco" Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooded stretcher. Paint Surface The paint surface has a relatively even varnish layer. There are some fine lines of craquelure mainly visible in the lower part of the composition. These appear entirely stable and are not visually distracting. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a discoloured varnish layer which prevents the uv light from fully penetrating. Inspection under ultra-violet light also shows scattered retouchings throughout the sky, mainly concentrated on the right side of the composition, scattered retouchings and lines of strengthening within the brown pigments of the architecture on the right side of the composition, strengthening to the wooden jetties in the lower left, the awning in the upper left and a reconstructed female figure in the lower left corner. Other spots and lines of retouching are also visible. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and no work is required.
"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."

Long believed to have been the work of Bernardo Bellotto, this pair of atmospheric Venetian views are now known to belong to a group of works that Charles Beddington has identified as being by an anonymous but distinctive hand in Bellotto’s circle, who may have worked alongside the artist during his early years in Canaletto’s studio. The artist’s sobriquet is taken from a work in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, The Grand Canal, Looking North from the Palazzo Rezzonico to the Palazzo Balbi, once also believed to have been by Bellotto and re-attributed by Beddington to this master. The works of the Lyon Master are described by Beddington as showing a profound understanding of the earliest style of the precocious Bellotto, for example in their sharp contrasts between light and shadow, and in the use of black, a colour favoured by Bellotto but not used by any other eighteenth–century Venetian view painter. Beddington refers to this pair as being the most painterly of the Lyon Master's known works.¹

The first of the pair, the view looking east to the entrance of the Grand Canal, with Santa Maria della Salute on the right, corresponds to several views of the same subject by Bellotto, notably those in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and formerly the Otto Hirsch collection, Frankfurt, and to a drawing by him in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt.² The Lyon Master’s version differs from Bellotto’s design mainly in the disposition of the boats and figures, but the similarities and shared motifs led Beddington to date the present works to the 1740s, the period to which all of Bellotto’s versions belong, as does the only known treatment of this view by Canaletto in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The composition of the second of the pair is loosely derived from Bellotto’s The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day at Castle Howard, and from his uncle Canaletto’s preparatory drawing at Windsor Castle. Although Bellotto's and Canaletto's versions depict a scene from the Festa della Sensa, the present version omits this. What the Lyon Master’s version might lack in the drama of the Ascension Day festivities it makes up for in almost nocturnal brooding atmosphere. It is this highly original dark tonality that sets the works of the Lyon Master apart from other hands within Canaletto’s studio.

1. C. Beddington, 'Bernardo Bellotto and His Circle in Italy. Part II: The Lyon Master and Pietro Bellotti,' in The Burlington Magazine, London 2005, vol. 147, no. 1222, p. 19.

2. See S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London 1972, vol. II, p. 13, nos 7–9.