(Venice 1673–1744)
Cannaregio with the Ponte Tre Archi and Palazzo Valier, Venice,
oil on canvas, 74 x 112.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Spain, since the 1920s

We are grateful to Bożena Anna Kowalczyk for suggesting the attribution and for her help in cataloguing the present lot.

This view of Venice was popular with many painters of Venetian vedute, including Canaletto, Marieschi and Guardi, who painted the important palaces alongside the Canale from this position and included the same bridge which was designed by Andrea Tirali in 1688. However, only Bernardo Canal portrayed the view in precisely this way, as recorded in a print published by Domenico Lovisa in 1717: with the Renaissance Palazzo Valier (with its unusually long row of windows on the piano nobile), situated next to the bridge, as the focal point (see D. Lovisa, Il Gran Teatro di Venezia ovvero Raccolta delle Principali Vedute e Pitture che in essa si contengono diviso in due tomi, Venice 1717, vol. I).

Another version of this painting, of almost identical size, which was offered for sale in 2011, first in Milan (as ‘Bernardo Canal’), and then in London (as ‘Attributed to Bernardo Canal’), has been confirmed to be fully autographed after cleaning, and has been dated to circa 1735–1738 (oil on canvas, 72 x 110.5 cm, private collection, and subsequently in sale at Porro & C., Milan, 30 May 2011, lot 132 and Bonhams, London, 7 December 2011, lot 6). In that version, the bridge is presented from a slightly different perspective, the mezzanino of the Palazzo Valier is more visible, more stairs are included, there is smoke coming from the chimneys and a number of altana have been added on the rooftops. Both versions of the subject are imbued with a peculiar sense of melancholy typical of Bernardo Canal’s work.

Bernardo Nicoló Canal was born in Venice on 17 September 1673. His father’s family was Venetian, according to the records, tracing back to the 1500s, and boasted noblemen and cittadini originarii [‘original citizens’] amongst their ancestors. His mother was also of noble origin and came from Brescia. Bernardo was the first ‘pittor’, or painter, in the family. He was already engaged in this trade, specialising in theatrical painting, when his second son Giovanni Antonio Canal - the famous Canaletto - was born, according to the baptismal record of 30 October 1697, and registered in the parish of San Lio, where the family lived (see W. G. Constable, Canaletto. Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697–1768, Oxford 1989, vol. I, pp. 1–50).

Father Bernardo and son Canaletto, continued to work together in their atelier. Here also, other members of the family, including the young Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780) and Pietro Bellotti (1725–circa 1800) trained during the 1730s. Bernardo Canal was held in high esteem in the Venetian artistic milieu. In 1739, he was appointed priore of the Collegio dei Pittari, the painters’ corporation which gathered in the Scuola di San Domenico in San Giovanni e Paolo.