?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
ANTONIO DA CANAL, IL CANALETTO An Imaginary View of Padua.
Etching, circa 1740. 301x425 mm; 12x16 3/4 inches, narrow to thread margins. Second state (of 3). Three crescents watermark (Bromberg 9-22, which she notes for early impressions, such as several impressions in the Zanetti album now in Berlin). A brilliant, richly-inked and early impression with very strong contrasts and no sign of wear.
Canaletto (1697-1768), whose work embodies the city of Venice perhaps more than any other artist, was a highly fashionable painter already known primarily for his topographical views that were popular among Europeans (particularly English visitors) on the Grand Tour, when he embarked on a series of some 30 Venice-inspired etchings in the early 1740s. This project was encouraged and principally financed by Joseph Smith, the British consul to the Venetian Republic, who also acted as Canaletto's agent on behalf of foreign collectors. Canaletto's etchings, most of which are capricci or imaginary views, blend familiar Venetian (and outlying areas such as Padua) vernacular architectural elements with classical motifs. DeVesme 11; Bromberg 11.
