FRANÇOIS BOCION | LE QUAI DES ESCLAVONS, 1875

Private Collection, Switzerland

Private Collection, Switzerland (by descent to the present owner in 2009)

A major work by the artist, this is the third version of a subject to which Bocion often returned. It was probably executed in his studio in 1876 following a 1874 trip to Venice. The idyllic scene shows Venice and its lagoon with boats and figures promenading on the shore. As always with Bocion the treatment of water and sky is not decorative but an essential element of the work. Equally the boats, which the artist uses to give structure to the composition, are also historical documentation of local life in Venetian lagoon in the 19^th Century.  

The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by Michel Reymondin and is registered in the supplement to the catalogue raisonné under no. 464.