Art Institute of Chicago

The Grand Canal, Venice

Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)LinkedCulture matchlcp-c557affc523c

Date: c. 1760
Medium: Oil on canvas
Culture: Italy
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 111074

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Although he did not begin to paint views ( vedute ) until he was in his mid-40s, Francesco Guardi soon became an accomplished practitioner in the genre. He was strongly influenced by the precisely rendered Venetian scenes of Canaletto and Michele Marieschi. In this work, one of his most important early cityscapes, Guardi depicted the mouth of the Grand Canal hustling with late-afternoon activity. The church of Santa Maria della Salute and the customhouse are visible on the right. The emotional tenor of Guardi’s vedute—seen here in the brooding, melancholy aura of the sky—distinguishes them from the works of his predecessors.

View at Art Institute of Chicago ↗

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Art Institute of Chicago

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Wirt D. Walker Fund
Provenance: S(amuel) C(harles) Weston, Esq, London by 1840 [according to Graves 1913, p. 452]; by descent to his son, Alexander Anderdon Weston, Esq., London, died 1901 [according to Venice 1993, no. 30, pp. 106-7]; his widow Isabella Frances Weston, died 1922; sold by order of the Trustees of Isabella Frances Weston, Christie’s, London, October 21, 1949, no. 31, to Koetser for £7,200 pounds [according to annotated catalogue at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago]; Koetser Gallery, New York; sold to the Art Institute in 1951.