London – Canaletto’s breathtaking view of Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732, will lead Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on 1 July, during Classic Week London (estimate on request; in excess of £20 million). Having only appeared at auction twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993, this picture is in a remarkable state of preservation with the surface of the painting beautifully textured and the rich impasto of the figures intact. Inaccessible to scholars throughout much of its history, it has only recently come to light that the picture hung at 10 Downing Street, where it is first recorded in 1736, in the collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This illustrious early 18th century provenance makes it – along with its pendant of the Grand Canal – the earliest recorded work by the Venetian master to be hung in an English house, predating King George III’s purchase of Consul Joseph Smith’s Canalettos by a quarter of a century. Exceedingly ambitious in both scale and conception, this highly evocative view is testimony to Canaletto’s prodigious talent and exacting technique, painted at the highpoint of his career. It is his earliest known representation of a subject to which he would return repeatedly, marking the starting point for Canaletto painting such festivities. This picture will be on on view at Christie’s New York from 3 until 15 May, followed by Hong Kong from 22 to 28 May, before returning to London for the pre-sale exhibition from 27 June to 1 July.

Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s Global Head of the Old Masters Department commented: “Seldom does a true masterpiece such as this - particularly by a painter as important as Canaletto - appear on the art market, and it is utterly thrilling to be handling its sale. This extraordinary painting of the  grandest and most familiar view of Venice, by the city’s most recognisable painter, dates to Canaletto’s finest period and is as notable for its illustrious provenance as much as for its impeccable condition. It is unquestionably the greatest work by the artist to have come to the market in a generation.”

10 DOWNING STREET

Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day was formerly accompanied by a pendant showing The Grand Canal, looking North-East from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge. The two paintings remained together until the present work’s sale at Ader Tajan in 1993 where, appearing at auction for the first time in nearly 250 years, it fetched a record price for an old master painting at auction in France. The exceptional pictorial quality and condition together with the distinguished provenance of both pictures ensured that when the pendant was sold in 2005 it made a world record price for the artist at auction, a title it still holds twenty years later. What was not known when the present picture was last offered for sale is that the two paintings share a remarkable early history, having been owned by Britain’s first Prime Minister, the great patron and collector Sir Robert Walpole.

Their presence in Walpole’s collection was first noticed by British Art historian and Old Master expert Sir Oliver Millar (1923-2007), who found them referenced in the 1736 manuscript catalogue of paintings at 10 Downing Street and in the 1751 auction when they were sold by Sir Robert’s grandson, George Walpole; the manuscript copy of the sale is held in the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum.  

It is not known how or when Sir Robert acquired this magnificent view and its pendant. It may have been through his son Edward, who was dispatched to Venice charged with acquiring works of art between January 1730 and January 1731, though both views are datable on stylistic grounds to circa 1731-32 and, as such, slightly postdate Edward’s Venetian sojourn. Whilst no doubt facilitated by Edward’s connections in Venice, the purchase of the pictures must have been instigated by the refurbishment of the Downing Street residence in 1732-35, after the residence was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by King George II in 1732. The British architect William Kent gutted the interiors of two adjacent properties and united them to create a new complex of sixty rooms. Sir Robert and his wife took up residence in 1735, remaining there until Walpole left office in 1742, whereupon he took his collection of pictures to Houghton Hall.

THE SUBJECT

Falling on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday, the Feast of the Ascension of Christ was the most spectacular of all Venetian festivals and was frequently commented upon by visitors and travellers. It was on this day exclusively that the Bucintoro, the official galley of the Doge of Venice and a symbol of the Serenissima, was used. The model depicted here, the last to be made at the Arsenale, was designed by Stefano Conti and decorated by the sculptor Antonio Corradini, identifiable by the lion – symbol of the city of Venice – on the prow and the figure of Justice. Accompanied by the city’s officials, the doge would sail out to the Lido on the Bucintoro and cast a ring into the water, a symbolic act representing the marriage of Venice to the sea. It was a ceremony that brought the entire city together and remained a key date in the Venetian calendar until the fall of the Republic in 1797.  The Bacino di San Marco, where the scene is set, was the usual – and certainly the most thrilling – point of arrival for visitors in Venice.

TECHNIQUE

Canaletto’s masterful views, replete with details and unparalleled in atmospheric effects, made him the most successful vedutista of his age and influenced succeeding generations of landscape painters. In this work his technique is supremely confident: controlled flicks of the brush evoke feathered parasols and trailing ribbons. Vivid accents of colour guide the viewer’s eye around the composition, with touches of vibrant red punctuating the entire composition. Canaletto seems to have already mastered the formula for creating the effect of rippled water, as pale arcs skip across the surface of the lagoon. The artist demonstrates a lightness of touch in describing figures in movement, even those in different planes. The scene has an airy, spontaneous quality and yet Canaletto’s technique is very precise and his architecture meticulously constructed, with every building outlined and detailed with rigorous precision. He demonstrates a great sensitivity to changing weather conditions, intersecting a fluffy white cloud at centre with a bold horizontal brushstroke, painted wet-in-wet, and applying a streaky haze on the horizon. A gentle breeze can be felt through the water ripples in the Bacino and the movement of the gondoliers’ feathered caps. The picture is imbued with the warm tonality of an early summer’s day. The lagoon is populated with elegantly-dressed figures reclining in gondolas, the moored Bucintoro stands majestically beyond, and a crowd of onlookers gathers on the Molo in the distance.

Christie’s Classic Week forms part of our programme of auctions, exhibitions and activities for the ‘London Summer Season’ in celebration of the dynamism and creativity London inspires.