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Catalog
Premium Francesco GUARDI (Venice, 1712 - 1793 )
Rialto Bridge and Ri…
See original version (French)
Francesco GUARDI (Venice, 1712 - 1793 )
Rialto Bridge and Ri…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 3
Description
Francesco GUARDI (Venice, 1712 - 1793 )
Rialto Bridge and Riva del Vin bustling with boats and gondolas, Venice
Oil on beech panel, one board, not parqueted
A wax collection stamp and a label with no. 189 on the reverse
The Rialto bridge and the Riva del Vin animated with gondolas, Venice, oil on beech tree panel, by F. Guardi
9.44 x 13.77 in.
24 x 35 cm
Provenance: Collection of Cérice François Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1732-1812) ;
By descent to his grandson, Léonce Louis Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1805-1877);
Charles-Jean-Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1829-1916);
Then by descent ;
Private collection, France
Bibliography: Dario Succi, Francesco Guardi, Catalogo Dei Dipinti E Designi Inediti, Milan, 2021, vol. II, p.120 and 121, no. 159
From the eighteenth century onwards, the heritage and splendour of Venice attracted ever-increasing crowds of tourists, particularly English, who wanted to bring back souvenirs of their Grand Tour. Vedute painting became a genre in its own right.
The famous Rialto Bridge, the only point of passage between the East (Sestieri de San Polo) and the West (San Marco district), was a favourite subject of Francesco Guardi. He depicted it some fifty times from various angles. With regard to the viewpoint chosen for our composition, Morassi lists eight versions1 and Succi adds three more in his catalogue of unpublished works, including our own [op. cit]. Among them is the one in the Musée du Louvre, dated around 1780 (R-F 1961-44, fig.1)2. On either side of the bridge in the centre, the Riva del Vin is on the left and the Riva del Ferro on the opposite bank of the Grand Canal. On this same right-hand side, a shaded part of the façade of the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin can be seen. In the background, you can see the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
The water of the Grand Canal is calm, interspersed only with ripples. All Francesco Guardi's virtuosity is concentrated here, in his vibrant brushstrokes, his interplay of light and shadow and the coloured patches that reinvent the view of this most familiar of sites. Canaletto frames it from a more distant position. The frenetic energy characteristic of Guardi's late works can be seen in the dynamic given by the movement of the various boats, where the rising diagonal of the tarpaulins over the boats meets the four blue canopies of the balconies above them. The silhouettes of the gondoliers reflect the active life of the City of Doges. The Rialto Bridge has an undeniable lightness about it, while just behind it a ray of sunlight breaks through a cloud and is reflected on the white facades of Istrian stone.
1. Antonio Morassi, Guardi, L'Opera Completa Di Antonio E Francesco Guardi, Alfieri, 1973, pp. 407-410.
2. Stéphane Loire, Peintures italiennes du XVIIIe siècle du musée du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, département des Peintures, Paris, 2017, p.161-163.
We would like to thank Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution to Francesco Guardi by means of a visual examination on 19 September 2025. He drew our attention to the fact that this panel is one of the largest formats on wood painted by the artist.
Francesco GUARDI (Venice, 1712 - 1793 )
24 x 35 cm
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
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