FR EN
1 / 2
painting of a living room with a couch, chairs, and chandelieran old wooden frame with a cork board attached to it
Premium Wannenes Art Auctions

1 - RALPH RANDOLF LATIMER
See original version (Italian)

Estimate €5,000 - €8,000
Sale commission
Description
RALPH RANDOLF LATIMER Baltimore, 1862 – Venice, 1931 The Stucco Hall at Palazzo Barbaro Oil on canvas, 97 × 124.5 cm The work captures the essence of one of the palace’s most iconic rooms, the magnificent ‘cameròn’ overlooking the Grand Canal, built at the end of the 17th century as part of the extension commissioned by Alvise Barbaro (1638–1699) based on a design by Antonio Gaspari and intended to house the new apartments of his son Almorò and Modesta Valier. The meticulous rendering of the decorative elements lends the painting significant documentary value. In particular, one can make out Sebastiano Ricci’s *The Rape of the Sabine Women* and Antonio Balestra’s *Coriolanus and His Women*, which are still preserved in situ today, alongside the stuccoes and period furnishings that defined this imposing state room. As in the famous depictions of the interiors of Palazzo Barbaro by John Singer Sargent and Walter Gay, the artist’s interest is not limited to describing the setting, but captures its role as a lived-in space, the theatre of the Curtis family’s cultural life. It was in this very hall that Daniel and Ariana Curtis brought to life one of the most vibrant artistic salons in late-nineteenth-century Venice, welcoming writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals from across Europe and the United States. The painting thus takes on the significance of a visual record of a space that was both a private residence and the centre of an extraordinary era of cultural encounters. Bibliography: E. A. McCauley, A. Chong, R. Momoli Zorzi, R. Linger, *Gondola Days. Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle*, Boston 2004, pp. 96–97, 196–199, 236–237 ‘Gondola Days’: Isabella Stewart Gardner and her world at Palazzo Barbaro-Curtis, exhibition catalogue edited by R. Mamoli Zorzi, Venice 2004, pp. 31–32, 47, 54–58 R. Mamoli Zorzi, Ralph W. Curtis: An American Painter in Venice, Venice 2019, pp. 41–46 R. Mamoli Zorzi, An American Painter in Venice: Ralph W. Curtis and the Palazzo Barbaro, 2024, pp. 67–69, 192
See original version (Italian)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale FROM THE CURTIS COLLECTIONS AT PALAZZO BARBARO: PAINTINGS, FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART
Auction location
Auction time 09/29/2026 at 2:45 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like