(Beaune 1821–1911 Paris)
Venice, a Gondola Ride to the Madonna at the Entrance of the Jardins Français, signed Ziem, oil on canvas, 70 x 110 cm, framed

Provenance:
Paul Michels, fine art Düsseldorf;
Thence by descent – Private Collection , Germany.

Compare:
Pierre Miquel, Félix Ziem 1821–1911, Maurs-la-jolie 1978, vol. II, cat. no. 1204.

We are grateful to Association Félix Ziem, represented by Mathias Ary Jan, David Pluskwa and Gérard Gabre, for confirming the authenticity on the basis of a high-resolution photograph.

A certificate issued by the Association Félix Ziem, certificate No. 256/0322 Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre de Félix Ziem, 3 March 2022 is available.

The Frenchman Félix Ziem was already celebrated as the “painter of Venice” during his lifetime. With his luminous, intense colouring, he occupies a special position in 19th century French painting. He combined the Barbizon School’s nature-centred realism with the Impressionists’ new understanding of light.

Born in 1821 in Beaune, Burgundy, Félix Ziem began painting as an autodidact in Marseilles after studying architectural drawing. In 1842, he travelled to Italy for the first time. The city of Venice would capture his attention for the rest of his life. Ziem led a nomadic life during the 1840s with stays in Germany and St. Petersburg, Constantinople and repeatedly in the small fishing port of Martigues near Marseilles. He did not visit Paris until 1849, where he immediately achieved unprecedented success in the French Salon. Paris became his new centre of life. Trips to Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East broadened his range of subjects and elevated his popularity. By the end of the decade, Félix Ziem was among the most expensive painters of his time. He worked with several galleries in France, London and New York. In 1855, 1867 and 1900, he took part in the Expositions Universelles in Paris. In 1910, he lived to see the opening of the Musée de Ziem in Martigues before he died on 10 November 1911 at the age of ninety.

Landscapes, still lifes and portraits are among Félix Ziem’s most prominent subjects. His anti-academic training allowed him to develop a painterly style freely and independent of conventions. He was in close contact with the artists of the Barbizon School, but unlike them he dared to give colours a dominant role that transcended reality. Discarding use of lines, his work’s characteristic blurriness gives the impression of movement, which lends his work a striking sense of moment.

A frequent motif in his Venice paintings is the arrival of the gondolas at the landing stages of the jardins français, today’s Giardini della Biennale. This painting from an old private collection also depicts a particularly festive event, the pilgrimage to a statue of the Madonna, which is reflected in the intensity of the blue of the sky and water and the luminous white of the walls.