(1712 Venice 1796)

Venetian capriccio with a tower, herders and sheep.

Oil on canvas.

94.2 × 137 cm.

Provenance:
– Collection of Canonico Adami, Treviso.
– Collection of Carlo Donati, Lonigo.
– Collection of Manuel Falco y Escandon, 9th Duke of Montellano (1892–
1975), Madrid, 1958.
– European private collection.

Exhibited:
Munich 1958, Europäisches Rokoko: Kunst und Kultur des 18. Jahrhunderts, Residenz, Munich, 15.6.–15.9.1958, no. 83a (listed as part of a series of four, on loan from the Duke of Montellano).

Literature:
– George A. Simonson: Francesco Guardi (1712–1793), London 1904, p. 91, no. 140.
– Giuseppe Fiocco: Francesco Guardi, Florence 1923, p. 74, no. 100.
– Max Goering: Francesco Guardi, Vienna 1944, p. 38, no. 65.
– Vittorio Meschini: Francesco Guardi, Mailand 1952, p. 32, ill. 121.
– Rodolfo Pallucchini: La pittura veneziana del Settecento, Venice / Rome1960, p. 243.
– Antonio Morassi: Guardi. L'opera completa di Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, cat no. 826, p. 463, Text p. 272, ill. 751.

Dated by Pallucchini (see ‘Literature’, above) to the early 1760s, this painting belongs to a series of four capriccios that are now in various collections. When they were exhibited together in Munich in 1958, Morassi admired their perfect state of conservation and the masterly, rapid succession of brushstrokes, which allows the viewer to practically follow the painter’s hand during the execution of the work: ‘le quattro splendide tele sono paradigmatiche per sintetizzare l’arte di Francesco nel fantasioso genere del “grande capriccio”’ (see Morassi 1973, p. 272). The preparation (or painting ground) shining through in the background and the golden light enveloping the scene in a soft glow are also characteristic of Guardi’s ‘grande capriccio’ genre. The three other paintings in the series are: a capriccio with rural buildings by a lagoon; a capriccio with an obelisk and a maritime pine near a lagoon, and a capriccio with fishermen by their tent and a village by a lagoon in the distance (see Morassi, ibid, vol. I, cat. nos. 877, 911 and 917).