(active in Venice between 1772–1783)
The Parlatorio delle Monache (The Nun’s Parlour),
oil on canvas, 82 x 114.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Brame & Lorenceau, Paris;
sale, Christie’s London, 23 March 1973, lot 99;
sale, Christie’s London, 17 July 1981, lot 33;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 18 January 1983, lot 131;
Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993) collection;
Sold by Order of the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation and Ballet Promotion Foundation, New York, Christie’s, 13 January 1995, lot 116;
sale, Christie’s New York , 29 January 1999, lot 20;
sale The Splendour of Venice, Sotheby’s London, 6 July 2010, lot 116

Giuseppe de Gobbis´s work reflects the theatrical elegance of Venetian society and, like Pietro Longhi before him, his scenes of Venetian everyday life are both lively and humorous. De Gobbis was employed by a number of religious fraternities in Venice, among them the church of Saint Barbara (for which he painted The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua) and the church of the Pietà (for which he painted a Flight into Egypt), but it is secular scenes such as the present work that contributed to his success.
The present composition enjoyed enormous popularity and other versions of it exist, often paired with a scene showing the ridotto (compare the paintings in the collection of the Duke of Bavaria, Badem-Salem, and those formerly in the collection of Dr. Olof Sundin).

Pignatti was the first to propose that these works were by Longhi’s follower De Gobbis and replicas have since been ascribed to him. This particular scene shows the Parlatorio delle Monache (or Nun’s Parlour) in San Zaccaria on the day in which friends and family could visit the novices, shown here crowding excitedly behind the grated windows. As in the case of the ridotto, many visitors wore masks and this led to it becoming an obvious location for conspiratorial plots and illicit amorous encounters. This fuelled the imagination of 18th century Venice: Longhi, Guardi and the Tiepolo all painted numerous scenes of ridotti and both Casanova and Goldoni’s writings were inspired by these surroundings. De Gobbis takes delight in packing his scene with narrative detail: indeed the novices whom the visitors have come to see appear peripheral and are barely involved at all. The visits were social events in which families of different classes could mingle and be entertained: the musical group at the left appear to have been provided for their pleasure (despite not being entirely appropriate for a nuns’ parlour). The finely-dressed woman seated in the centre of the composition seems receptive to the advances of the masked gentleman besides her and other masked figures are engaged in furtive conversations; their hoods and masks adding to the general air of mystery.

The present painting was once owned by Rudolf Nureyev (see provenance).