(Düsseldorf 1827–1905)
A scene at dusk in Venice, signed, dated Osw. Achenbach 1903, oil on canvas, 76 x 99 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Sale, J, M. Heberle, Cologne, 28 November 1906, lot 66;
Private collection, Germany;
Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 9 May 1995, lot 127;
Private collection, Germany.

Exhibited:
Große Berliner Kunstaustellung, Berlin, 30 April - 2. October 1904. No. 2, ill. 23.

La Serenissima rises from the lagoon in front of a dramatic evening sky. Together with the couple in the foreground, who are seated on the steps of the jetty, we look from Isola San Giorgio over Bacino di San Marco in the direction of St Mark’s Square. The lights of the Riva degli Schiavoni shine over the water like a string of pearls and the gondolas on the right are decorated with colourful lanterns. It could well be the evening of the third Sunday in July, when the Festa del Redentore takes place in Venice every year as a reminder of the end of the great plague that swept through the city in 1577.Half an hour before midnight, a sea of lights and fireworks is set alight on the Bacino and spectators traditionally enjoy a festive picnic overlooking the spectacle.
In this picture, the crescent moon is still in the sky and the red light of dawn makes the city and the lagoon shine. There is a celebratory, cheerful atmosphere in the air – in anticipation of the spectacle of light that will turn night into day.