Francesco Guardi

Venetian, 1712 - 1793

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Italian painter (1712-1793)

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Francesco Guardi, Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, c. 1785, oil on canvas, Gift of Howard Sturges, 1956.9.2

Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome

Francesco Guardi · c. 1785 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.9.2

Francesco Guardi, Temporary Tribune in the Campo San Zanipolo, Venice, 1782 or after, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.129

Temporary Tribune in the Campo San Zanipolo, Venice

Francesco Guardi · 1782 or after · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.129

Francesco Guardi, Two Elegant Couples [verso], c. 1780, pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1986.13.1.b

Two Elegant Couples [verso]

Francesco Guardi · c. 1780 · pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1986.13.1.b

Francesco Guardi, An Elegantly Dressed Woman Struggling with a Lion, 1780/1785, pen and brown ink on blue paper with white heightening, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2008.42.1

An Elegantly Dressed Woman Struggling with a Lion

Francesco Guardi · 1780/1785 · pen and brown ink on blue paper with white heightening ·  Accession ID  2008.42.1

We look down and across a canal filled with more than two dozen gondolas and sailing boats, and flanked by rows golden-yellow and parchment-white buildings connected by a wide, arched bridge in this horizontal landscape painting. Some of the boats are pulled up to the buildings lining the water, and others weave through the canal, guided by one or two people each. Closest to us, two long, low, slender gondolas are angled toward each other. Other boats have curving, cabin-like structures, and there are three sailing ships with tall masts among the gondolas. The densely spaced buildings along either side of the canal have three or four stories with rows of dark, rectangular windows, but some have five stories, like the building closest to us to our right. Laundry hangs from some windows or from balconies, and rooflines are lined with low chimneys. The two banks of the canal are connected by a fawn-brown, stone bridge with a wide, arched span. The deck is covered with an arched walkway filled with pedestrians. The canal extends into the distance and turns a corner, so the rows of buildings create a screen beyond the bridge. Tiny in scale, people walk along both sides of the canal. Touches of white, black, brown, and harvest gold suggest clothing and hats. The water and buildings take up the lower third of the composition. Against a pale blue sky, a screen of white clouds darkens to flint gray in the upper right corner.
Francesco Guardi, Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice, probably c. 1780, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.27

Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice

Francesco Guardi · probably c. 1780 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.27

Francesco Guardi, An Elegant Couple, a Gooseboy, and a Gentleman [recto], c. 1780, pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash over black chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1986.13.1.a

An Elegant Couple, a Gooseboy, and a Gentleman [recto]

Francesco Guardi · c. 1780 · pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1986.13.1.a

Francesco Guardi, The Fortress of San Andrea from the Lagoon, 1780s, pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash over black on laid paper, with some white gouache, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.13

The Fortress of San Andrea from the Lagoon

Francesco Guardi · 1780s · pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash over black on laid paper, with some white gouache ·  Accession ID  1963.15.13

Francesco Guardi, View on the Cannaregio Canal, Venice, c. 1775-1780, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.113

View on the Cannaregio Canal, Venice

Francesco Guardi · c. 1775-1780 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.113

Francesco Guardi, Santa Maria della Salute, c. 1770, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2015.19.29

Santa Maria della Salute

Francesco Guardi · c. 1770 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.29

Francesco Guardi, Venetian Capriccio with Boats Unloading (recto); Figures among Ruins (verso), 1760s/1770s, pen and brown ink over black chalk with gray-brown wash on laid paper (recto) black chalk, pen and two colors of brown ink, grey-brown wash on laid paper (verso), The Edith Tanenbaum Rudolf Collection, 2022.75.3.a-b

Venetian Capriccio with Boats Unloading (recto); Figures among Ruins (verso)

Francesco Guardi · 1760s/1770s · pen and brown ink over black chalk with gray-brown wash on laid paper (recto) black chalk, pen and two colors of brown ink, grey-brown wash on laid paper (verso) ·  Accession ID  2022.75.3.a-b

Bibliography

1960

  • Haskell, Francis. "Francesco Guardi as Vedutista and some of his Patrons." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 23 (1960): 256-276.

1973

  • Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. I Dipinti. 2 vols. Milan, 1973; second printing, 1984.

1976

  • Binion, Alice. Antonio and Francesco Guardi. Their Life and Milieu with a Catalogue of their Figure Drawings. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1971. Published New York, 1976.

1987

  • Guardi, metamorfosi dell'imagine. Dario Succi et. al. Exh. cat. Castello di Gorizia. Venice, 1987.

1988

  • Succi, Dario. "Francesco Guardi." In Capricci veneziani del settecento. Edited by Dario Succi. Exh. cat. Castello di Gorizia. Milan, 1988: 325-384.

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: 120-121.