Erminia and the Shepherds
1750/1755
Artist, Venetian, 1712 - 1793
Artist, Venetian, 1699 - 1761
NGA, West Building, M-121, W
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 251.5 x 442.2 cm (99 x 174 1/8 in.)
framed: 260.1 x 449.7 cm (102 3/8 x 177 1/16 in.) -
Accession
1964.21.2
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Richard White, 2d earl of Bantry [1800-1868], County Cork, Ireland, who perhaps bought it in Italy c. 1820; by descent to Mrs. Shelswell-White. (Unspecified dealer, Dublin, as by Pellegrini, in 1955); (David Carritt for Geoffrey Merton, London), 1956.[1] (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London); purchased 1964 by NGA.
[1] The discovery of the series of Tasso paintings, of which this and NGA 1964.21.1 are part, is variously recounted in the early literature (see references). Only Antonio Morassi, "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata", Emporium 131 (1960): 247; Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:232; and a few contemporary news accounts, for example, Giornale del Mattino 30 October 1959, mention the "Dublin dealer." The rest report that Carritt discovered them in "the shed of an old house in Ireland."
There is no evidence which of the Bantry residences originally housed the paintings, or when and where they were acquired. An unsubstantiated, and unlikely, rumor that the paintings were once at Versailles is variously reported in the NGA curatorial files. Francis J.B. Watson, "Guardi and England", in Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965, Venice, 1967: 212, speculated that the earl of Bantry may have acquired the paintings as works by François Boucher (1703-1770).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1960
Italian Art and Britain, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1960, no. 460, as by Francesco Guardi.
1969
In Memoria, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no cat.
1994
The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice, 1994-1995, no. 191, repro. (shown only in London and Washington).
Bibliography
1959
Frohlich-Bume, Lili. "Die neuentdeckten Bilder von Francesco Guardi." Weltkunst 29 (1959): 7.
Muraro, Michelangelo. "Figure di Francesco Guardi." Emporium 130 (1959): 252, n. 14.
Jeudwine, W.R. "A Guardi Rediscovery." Apollo 70 (1959): 173-175, repro.
1960
Pallucchini 1960, 134, 140, figs. 356-357.
Morassi, Antonio. "Aggiunta al Guardi: le cinque 'Storie' della Gerusalemme liberata." Emporium 131 (1960): 247-256, figs. 5-6.
Muraro, Michelangelo. "Arte Italiana e Inghilterra." Emporium 131 (1960): 168-170.
Muraro, Michelangelo. "The Guardi Problem and the Statues of the Venetian Guilds." The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 421-428.
1961
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. "La pittura veneta alla mostra Italian Art and Britain: Appunti e proposte." In Festschrift Eberhard Hanfstaengl zum 75. Munich, 1961: 81-83, figs. 5-6.
1964
Martini, Egidio. La pittura veneziana del settecento. Venice, 1964: 114, 274, n. 259, fig. 262.
Pignatti, Terisio. "Nuovi disegni di figura dei Guardi." Critica d'Arte n.s. II, nos. 67-68 (1964): 60.
1965
Zampetti, Pietro, ed. Mostra dei Guardi. Exh. cat. Ca'Peasaro, Venice, 1965.
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 64.
Heinemann, Fritz. "Mostra dei Guardi." Kunstchronik 18 (1965): 240.
Nicolson, Benedict. "The Guardi Brothers as Figure Painters." The Burlington Magazine 107 (1965): 472.
Palluchini, Rodolfo. "Note alla mostra dei Guardi." Arte Veneta 19 (1965): 226.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:336, color repro.
Hannegan, Barry. "Guardi at Venice." The Art Bulletin 48 (1966): 251.
Levey, Michael. Rococo to Revolution. New York, 1966: 113-114, fig. 69.
Morassi, Antonio. "Altre novità e precisazioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi." Atti dell'Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Udine. 7th ser., 8 (1966-1969): 287.
Pignatti, Terisio. "The Brothers Guardi." Art News Annual 31 (1966): 45.
Watson, Francis J. B. "The Guardi Family of Painters." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 114 (1966): 277-279.
Zampetti, Pietro. "A proposito dei Guardi." Colóquio 39 (1966): 44.
1967
Mahon, Denis. "The Brothers at the Mostra dei Guardi: Some Impressions of a Neophyte." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 91-99.
Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi." In Sensibilità e razionalità del '700. Corso internazionale di alta cultura, 7, Venice 1965. Edited by Vittore Branca. Florence, 1967: 509-510.
Watson, Francis J. B. "Guardi and England." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967: 212.
Zampetti, Pietro. "Il problema dei Guardi: la ricerca della verita." In Problemi Guardeschi. Atti del convegno di studi promossi della Mostra dei Guardi. 13-14 settembre 1965. Venice, 1967.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 57, repro.
Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi as a Draughtsman." MD 6 (1968): 132.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 98.
1973
Morassi, Antonio. Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi. 2 vols. Venice, 1973-1975: 1:88-92, 320-322, nos. 68-69; 2:figs. 78, 80.
1974
Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina. L'opera completa di Francesco Guardi. Milan, 1974: 89-90, nos. 17, 21, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 168, repro.
1978
Knox, George. "The Tasso Cycles of Giambattista Tiepolo and Gianantonio Guardi." Museum Studies 9 (1978): 89-95, fig. 28-29.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:231-235; 2:pl. 158.
1981
Martini, Egidio. La pittura del settecento veneto. Udine, 1981: 547, n. 333.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 348, no. 484, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 195, repro.
1989
Pignatti, Terisio. Venezia. Mille anni d'arte. Venice, 1989: 333, color repro.
1992
Pedrocco, Filippo, and Federico Montecuccoli degli Erri. Antonio Guardi. Milan, 1992: 141-142, nos. 153-154, figs. 195, 197-201, color pls. 34-35.
1994
Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison, eds. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, 1994: 452, cat. 191, color pl.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 147-157, color repro. 151.
Wikidata ID
Q20178001