Did Canaletto paint these paired views of Venice for the Countess of Essex?

Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768), was born and died in Venice. Home for most of his life, the city was also the artistic subject that dominated his career. Canaletto helped establish the veduta — or topographical view — as one of the chief genres of Venetian painting in the 18th century, as well as a prime export.

His clients were often wealthy English aristocrats, en route through continental Europe as part of a Grand Tour and keen to take home a souvenir of their visit to Venice. In many cases, vedute appealed for a political reason, too, with a parallel being drawn between the power of the Venetian patriciate and that of England’s Whig oligarchy.

Twenty-four Canalettos commissioned and purchased by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, still hang at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Other members of the English aristocracy who secured the artist’s paintings were Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (of Castle Howard in Yorkshire), and Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (of Goodwood House in Sussex).

A pair of vedute by Canaletto, unknown to scholars until now, will lead the Old Masters Part I sale at Christie’s in London on 7 December 2023, as part of Classic Week. Coming from a private collection, these masterpieces were painted around 1734, when Canaletto was at the peak of his powers, almost certainly for an English patron.

Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East and The Molo, with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, from the Bacino capture two of the artist’s most evocative views. They actually imply similar viewpoints: a boat in the basin of San Marco. Looking west, one can see the mouth of the Grand Canal and the architectural drama of the buildings flanking it (as depicted in the first picture); and looking broadly north, one can see the Doge’s Palace and other great monuments at the city’s heart (as shown in the second).

Certain patrons liked paintings to hang in pairs, or as components of longer series. By supplying works with complementary or intersecting viewpoints — as with the two coming to auction — Canaletto could produce a three-dimensional impression of the relation between some of Venice’s key buildings. That both the pictures are set in the morning only strengthens the bond between them.

There is a slight difference, though, in their respective skies, which affects the light conditions dictating the reflection of buildings and boats in the water. In Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East, sun penetrates the cloud, and there are strong reflections. In The Molo, with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, from the Bacino, by contrast, the cloud above us must be slightly denser, meaning the Doge’s Palace isn’t reflected in the water. The darker conditions enable the artist to emphasise the marvellously subtle brick patterning on the palace itself.

Among the structures depicted in the former picture, from left to right, are Giuseppe Benoni’s Dogana (Customs House), surmounted by a bronze statue of Fortune on a globe; Baldassare Longhena’s great church of Santa Maria della Salute; the campanile of Santa Maria della Carità; Bartolomeo Monopola’s Palazzo Barozzi Emo Treves de Bonfili; and Jacopo Sansovino’s Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande.

The buildings depicted in The Molo, from left to right, include a few bays of Sansovino’s Zecca (the Venice mint); the same architect’s great library, the Biblioteca Marciana (also known as the Libreria), with the Campanile of St Mark’s Basilica behind it; the Torre dell’Orologio; the south front of St Mark’s Basilica; the Doge’s Palace; and the Prigioni (the prisons).

Canaletto never precisely repeated his compositions and was a master at differentiating them slightly, shifting an angle of vision from one picture to another, and varying the types and positions of the boats that contribute to the sense of recession.

Naturally the artist was expected to paint several pictures of some of the most celebrated views of the city. He had previously painted both views from the basin of San Marco for Joseph Smith, later the British consul in Venice: these are now in the Royal Collection.

A closer stylistic comparison, however, could be made between the two canvases and two from the series of vedute at Woburn Abbey: The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West and The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco. That series, Canaletto’s largest and widely regarded as his most important, was commissioned in the early 1730s by the 4th Duke of Bedford, and executed over a period of about four years. The works were purchased through Joseph Smith, who — before becoming consul and in addition to building up a Canaletto collection of his own — had acted as the artist’s agent, facilitating sales to English patrons.

The early provenance of the twin works coming to auction is not known. However, the scholar Charles Beddington suggests, very plausibly, that the pair form part of a set of four paintings known to have been commissioned by Elizabeth, wife of William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex — who was the 4th Duke of Bedford’s sister.

The earl served as England’s ambassador to Turin between 1732 and 1736. While his first love was opera, his wife was a connoisseur of art. On 18 September 1734, Smith wrote to the earl from Venice that ‘by the force of a Constant reminding of Canal[etto] of his Engagement to serve Lady Essex’, he had got the artist to ‘sett aside some other works’ and concentrate ‘all his skill to finish the four pieces’ which she had ordered while visiting Venice the previous year. This quartet, Smith added, had just been dispatched to England, presumably meant for display at the earl’s ancestral seat, Cassiobury House in Hertfordshire, or perhaps at his London residence.

Did the Countess of Essex’s four Canalettos come into being because she was impressed by the series commissioned by her brother? The subjects of the works about to be auctioned suggest that she saw the two related vedute ordered by the 4th Duke of Bedford — most likely on the same visit to Venice, in May 1733, when she made her own order. (The identity and whereabouts of the third and fourth of her paintings remain unknown.)

The impact of the 4th Duke of Bedford’s series — which was displayed initially at Bedford House in London, before being transferred to Woburn at the end of the 18th century — certainly led to one other family commission. The duke’s erstwhile brother-in-law, Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, commissioned a series of Canaletto views which he hung at Langley Park in Buckinghamshire.

The paintings coming to auction possibly passed to the Essexes’ son, William Anne, 4th Earl of Essex, who sent a significant number of pictures to Christie’s at the start of 1777. These included 10 by Canaletto, among which were three pairs of vedute, and it might be assumed that Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East and The Molo, with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, from the Bacino comprised one such pair.

As his fellow painter Alessandro Marchesini remarked in 1725, Canaletto ‘astounds everyone in this city who sees his work’. This included the Countess of Essex, who was his only recorded English female patron.

Explore art from antiquity to the 21st century at Classic Week, 1-15 December 2023 at Christie’s in London