(Canale d’Agordo 1709–1781 Treviso)
A river landscape with washerwomen and cattle,
oil on canvas, 82 x 101.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Major M. Williams, Penbedw Hall (according to an inscription on the reverse);
Private European Collection

Exhibited:
Passariano, Villa Manin, Da Canaletto a Zuccarelli, il paesaggio veneto del settecento, 8th August-16th November 2003, no. 85

Literature:
D. Succi/A. Delneri (eds.), Marco Ricci e il paesaggio veneto del Settecento, Milan 1993, p. 285-290, fig. 100 (as Giuseppe Zais);
A. Delneri, L’Arcadia presa da i luoghi di Giuseppe Zais, in: Da Canaletto a Zuccarelli, il paesaggio Veneto del Settecento, ed. by A. Delneri/D. Succi, Tavagnacco 2003, p. 348, fig. 85 (as Giuseppe Zais)

The present painting belongs to the finest period in the artistic career of Giuseppe Zais, when the Venetian master interpreted the example of Francesco Zuccarelli in a most personal manner. At this time, he produced a limited series of landscapes touched by an extraordinary sensibility, suffused in golden light, representing sparkling waterfalls, fresh riverbanks and luminous skies with the distant silhouette of snow-capped mountains on the horizon. His foregrounds, which are cast in shadow, are enlivened by his chosen company of washerwomen, fishermen, cavaliers, and cattle: they closely echo the models established by Zuccarelli but are distinguished by Zais’ inimitable manner, characterised by fragmented strokes of thick impasto.

The River Landscape with Washerwomen and Cattle is arranged in receding parallel planes that fuse the landscape ideal of Marco Ricci with memories of Zucarelli, creating a scintillating symphony of light and a chromatic effect. The other painting is arranged on a receding angle, to the left is the marvellous passage of a waterfall bursting forth from the forest in silvery rivulets, while to the right, the delicate pictorial phrasing articulates a hazy aerial view over an enchanting panorama of a distant landscape. The figures closest to the viewer (the cavalier, the child, the two women with outstretched arms) summarise three distinct pictorial styles: that of Francesco Simonini in the evidently foreshortened galloping rider, the delicacy of Zuccarelli in the child, while the frank description of the rustic figures is typical of Zais.

The present work and the following lot can be dated to circa 1750-1755.