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We look down and across a canal filled with more than two dozen gondolas and sailing boats, and flanked by rows golden-yellow and parchment-white buildings connected by a wide, arched bridge in this horizontal landscape painting. Some of the boats are pulled up to the buildings lining the water, and others weave through the canal, guided by one or two people each. Closest to us, two long, low, slender gondolas are angled toward each other. Other boats have curving, cabin-like structures, and there are three sailing ships with tall masts among the gondolas. The densely spaced buildings along either side of the canal have three or four stories with rows of dark, rectangular windows, but some have five stories, like the building closest to us to our right. Laundry hangs from some windows or from balconies, and rooflines are lined with low chimneys. The two banks of the canal are connected by a fawn-brown, stone bridge with a wide, arched span. The deck is covered with an arched walkway filled with pedestrians. The canal extends into the distance and turns a corner, so the rows of buildings create a screen beyond the bridge. Tiny in scale, people walk along both sides of the canal. Touches of white, black, brown, and harvest gold suggest clothing and hats. The water and buildings take up the lower third of the composition. Against a pale blue sky, a screen of white clouds darkens to flint gray in the upper right corner.

Francesco Guardi

Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice, probably c. 1780

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 31

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 68.5 x 91.5 cm (26 15/16 x 36 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.27

Artists / Makers

Francesco Guardi (artist) Venetian, 1712 - 1793

Image Use

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Overview

For several decades after Canaletto painted his Quay of the Piazzetta, Francesco Guardi continued producing picturesque cityscapes for the tourist trade. Although the artist was little-known in his own day, his views of Venice are now highly prized for their atmospheric qualities and broad, sketchy brushwork.

The Rialto Bridge, built in 1592 as the first stone bridge to span the Grand Canal, is the focal point of Guardi's composition, one of several versions of this popular attraction. Lined with market stalls and shops, it formed the hub of an important commercial center. Just beyond the bridge at the right is the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the warehouse of the German merchants -- now a post office -- that became famous in the Renaissance when Giorgione and Titian frescoed its facade.

People poke their heads out of windows and gather on the balconies to watch the spectacle of daily life on the Rialto. The artist must have taken his view from a similar perch, looking down on the bustling scene. Market barges draped in canvas canopies are tied up at the quayside. Energetic gondoliers pole their boats up the crowded canal.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf

Provenance

Possibly John Ingram [1767-1841], Matsala [or Marsala] House, England;[1] probably passed to his son Hughes Ingram [b. c. 1800]; probably passed to his nephew Ingram Fuller Godfrey [1827-1916].[2] John G. Johnson, Philadelphia; purchased 1894 by Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Private Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. Part II. Early English and Ancient Paintings, Paris, 1885-1900: 202, gives the provenance as "Ingram (Marsala House) Collection." A typewritten copy of the same catalogue, dated 1908 on the binding (NGA library, Rare Book Collection), changes "Marsala" to "Matsala." Subsequent Widener catalogues (1916, 1923, and 1931) give the provenance as Matsala House. The probable pendant (see text of the NGA systematic catalogue entry) is listed in the Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures Belonging to John G. Johnson, Philadelphia, 1892: 86, no. 257, as coming from "Ingram of Marsala House." Ingram has not been identified conclusively, but would appear to be John Ingram, who is known to have collected Guardi views in Venice around 1800. On John Ingram see Francis Haskell, "Francesco Guardi as Vedutista and Some of His Patrons", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 23 (1960): 271-272. In a letter of 17 September 1968 (NGA curatorial files), Haskell wrote that he was baffled by the reference to Matsala House. John Ingram is known to have resided at Staindrop Hall, County Durham; in Venice; and later in Rome.

[2] The later history of John Ingram's collection is traced by James Byam Shaw, "Some Guardi Drawings Rediscovered", Master Drawings 15 (1977): 3-5. Parts of Ingram's collection were dispersed at the end of the nineteenth century in public sales that did not include paintings. Johnson may have acquired the Washington and Philadelphia paintings directly or indirectly from Ingram's heirs at about this time, but this cannot be documented.

[3] According to a typewritten card in the Lynnewood Hall Inventories, NGA curatorial files. The painting does not appear in the 1892 Johnson catalogue cited in note 1.

Associated Names

Godfrey, Ingram Fuller
Ingram, Hughes
Ingram, John
Johnson, John G.
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1940: Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 29, repro.

1994: The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice, 1994-1995, not in cat. (shown only in Washington in 1995).

2010: Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, The National Gallery, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no. 62, repro.

2012: Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793, Museo Correr, Venice, 2012-2013.

Technical Summary

The support is a somewhat coarse, medium-weight, plain-weave fabric. The ground is a pinkish layer containing coarse white particles distributed throughout, but most evident in the sky. The paint was relatively thinly applied, although the whites are somewhat thicker. In many areas the top paint layer was applied over a flat violet-colored layer that shows most clearly in the buildings and some of the boats. To paint the buildings the artist first blocked in the facades using muted, often translucent tones over the violet layer, then drew in the windows and details that give them shape with black lines. The boats, docks, and figures in the right foreground were painted over the completed water.

The painting was possibly transferred before being lined and there may only be a thin layer of gauze between the fabric and the paint layers. The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping is evident on all four sides. The painting is in good condition with relatively few losses. The edges have been completely inpainted. The varnish is clear. Discolored varnish was removed and the painting was restored in 1930 by Herbert Carmer and in 1980-1981 by Ann Hoenigswald.

Bibliography

1916: Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1923: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 222, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1935: Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 119, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 119, repro.).

1948: Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 27, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 318, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 64, as View of the Rialto.

1967: Arslan, Edoardo. "Considerazioni sui vedutismo di Francesco Guardi." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del Convegno di studi promosso della mostra dei Guardi 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 18.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 56, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 97.

1973: Morassi, Antonio. Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi. 2 vols. Venice, 1973-1975: 1:408-409, no. 529; 2:fig. 512.

1974: Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina. L'opera completa di Francesco Guardi. Milan, 1974: 114, no. 406, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 166, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1975: Morassi, Antonio. Tutti i disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi. Venice, 1975: 143.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:240-241; 2:pl. 161, as View of the Rialto.

1982: Bordeaux, Jean Luc. "Baroque to Neo-Classicism." Apollo 115 (1982): 448.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 348, no. 482, color repro., as View of the Rialto.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 193, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 119, repro., as View of the Rialto.

1993: Succi, Dario. Francesco Guardi. Milan, 1993: 107, fig. 107.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 130-133, color repro. 131.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 238, no. 189, color repro.