Francesco Guardi

With Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris (from a seal on the reverse);
Private Collection, Massachusetts, since the mid-20th Century.

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 work is in good condition. However, it has not been recently restored and would certainly benefit from some careful attention. The canvas has an old lining, on top of which there is a small reinforcement attending to a damage directly above the boatmen in the lower left. There are retouches in the water in the lower center and lower left. There is slight strengthening in the dark wall to the left of the church. The canvas has relaxed slightly on its stretcher, which could be improved. The painting would respond well to cleaning, and the small amount of slight thinness to the darkest colors of the boats and architecture could be reduced with some very careful retouching.
"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."

The Island of San Cristoforo della Pace, situated to the North-East of Venice in the direction of Murano, a short distance from the Fondamenta Nuove, is one of the more significant sights of Venice which has been completely lost since the eighteenth century. The island had been given in 1454 to the distinguished Augustinian theologian Fra Simeone da Camerino, who constructed the church seen here, which consisted of a tall three-bay hall with an apse and seven low side chapels. Damaged by French troops in 1798-9, the monastery was suppressed by Napoleonic decree in 1806 and both it and the church demolished in c. 1810. The island was joined in 1836 to that of San Michele behind in order to create the cemetery island (A. Zorzi, Venezia Scomparsa, II, Repertorio degli edifici veneziani distrutti, alterati o manomessi, Milan, 1977, pp. 401-3). 

The island was a subject popular with Francesco Guardi, who had also painted an altarpiece for the church with life-size figures of Saints Peter, Paul and Jerome (now lost but recorded by Pietro Edwards). Several of his paintings show the relationship between the island and those of San Michele and San Cristoforo (see A. Morassi, Guardi. L’opera completa di Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice, 1973, I, p. 430, nos. 645, 645a and 646, colour pls. LII-III; II, figs. 606-8). This previously unrecorded and particularly delicate painting is one of several depictions by Guardi which show the island from the same direction, all with entirely different boats and figures, also depicted in a drawing in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti i disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Venice, 1975, p. 151, no. 409, fig. 413, where described as ‘probably taken from the Fondamenta Nuove’). The largest of these paintings was in the Champalimaud Sale at Christie’s, London, 6 July 2005, lot 16 (£1,800,000; Morassi, op. cit., 1973, I, p. 431, no. 647, colour pl. LIV; II, fig. 609). Another version on canvas is recorded by Morassi as with the Galleria Schubert, Milan (ibid., no. 648), while a version on panel only slightly larger than the present painting was sold at Christie’s, New York, 25 May 1999, lot 145, and Christie’s, London, 7 July 2016, lot 43 (ibid., no. 649).

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution, after inspection of the painting in the original, and for his assistance with this entry.