National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Grand Canal
  • Overview
  • Marks and Labels
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

During his brief career Richard Bonington painted a variety of subjects, including landscapes, seascapes, and genre and historical scenes. Working primarily in Paris and London, he also regularly made sketching trips elsewhere; in 1826 he spent almost a year in Italy, including a month in Venice. While there Bonington painted many small sketches that he later used in his studio to create finished works such as this exquisite small painting.

Bonington was greatly admired in his own day for his exceptional ability to capture effects of light and atmosphere with unerring assurance. The French painter Eugene Delacroix, an especially devoted admirer, admitted that he never ceased to wonder at Bonington's "marvelous understanding of effects, and the facility of his execution . . . . that lightness of touch which . . . makes his pictures as it were like diamonds that delight the eye." Here the lovely play of light on the building facades, the delicate reflections on the water, and the sweep of the clouds across the sky are clear evidence of what Delacroix so greatly admired.

Inscription

null

Marks and Labels

on bottom strainer member: red wax seal

Provenance

The artist's father, Richard Bonington; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 23-24 May 1834, 2nd day, no. 148); Welbore Ellis Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton [1778-1868], Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire; by descent in the family to his great-great-grandson, Shaun James Christian Welbore Ellis Agar, 6th Earl of Normanton [b. 1945], Somerley; consigned to (Sayn-Wittgenstein Fine Art, Inc., New York); purchased 13 July 2001 by NGA.

Exhibition History

1834
Possibly Drawings and Sketches of the Late R.P. Bonington, Cosmorama Rooms, London, 1834, no. 57.
1961
Bonington, The Guildhall of St. George, King's Lynn, England, 1961, no. 18.
1962
Pictures, Watercolours and Drawings by R.P. Bonington, In Aid of The King's Lynn Festival Fund, Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, 1962, no. 16, repro.
1965
R.P. Bonington, 1802-1828, Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham; Castle Museum, Norwich; Southampton Art Gallery, 1965, no. 278.
1972
Venice Rediscovered, in aid of The Venice in Peril Fund, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1972, no. 3, fig. 5.

Bibliography

1924
Dubuisson, A., and C.E. Hughes, Richard Parkes Bonington, His Life and Work, London, 1924: 178, no. 148.
1991
Noon, Patrick. Richard Parkes Bonington: 'on the pleasure of painting'. Exh. cat. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Petit Palais, Paris. New Haven, 1991: 214, under no. 98.
2006
Conisbee, Philip, and Franklin Kelly. "Small is Beautiful." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 34 (Spring 2006): 2-17, fig. 7.

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