(Venice 1712–1793)
The Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice,
oil on canvas, 56 x 74 cm, framed

Provenance:
Anonymous Sale, Christie´s, London 29 June 1973, lot 62 (as Francesco Guardi, sold for 19,000 guineas);
with Agnew´s, London (where purchased by the present owners as Francesco Guardi);
European Private Collection, Switzerland

Francesco Guardi was part of a family of artists which included his brother Gianantonio with whom he initially work with in his father´s studio mainly executing religious and historical painting. Collaboration was in the tradition of the Venetian family studios, characteristic of the Vivarini and the Bellini, of Jacopo Bassano with his sons, of Tintoretto with his son, daughter and son-in-law, and of Paolo Veronese with his heirs, down to the Guardi’s own time in the studio of their famous brother-in-law, Giambattista Tiepolo, with his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo.

It has been suggested that Francesco came into his own as a veduta painter, after his brother’s death or only shortly before, but it may be possible that he began to paint views of Venice as early as 1730. On the whole his vedute are not dated earlier than the late 1750s. He followed the studio practice of borrowing compositions from others: he borrowed, for instance, from the etchings of his near-contemporary Michele Giovanni Marieschi, as in the Grand Canal with the Palazzo Pesaro (National Gallery, London) but his main source of inspiration at this time was Canaletto. Francesco Guardi was nevertheless able to make the genre very much his own with his distinctive flickering brushwork. His painterly style is known as pittura di tocco (of touch) and is characterized by small dotting and spirited brush-strokes and a loose style that was to inspire the French Impressionists.

It has been suggested that the present work is from Francesco Guardi´s early production.