Provenance:

The Very Reverend Eugene Augustus Hoffman, Dean of the General Theological Seminary, New York, and Mary Crooke (Elmendorf) Hoffman.
By inheritance to their daughter, Suzanne Hoffman Watson.
By further descent in the family to a private collector, New York.
[Sale] Doyle, New York, October 10, 2018, lot 1001.
Purchased from the above sale by the previous owner.

Antonietta Brandeis was one of only two female artists in her class when she graduated from the Academia di Belle Arti in 1867. She graduated at the top of the class, and embarked on a career, often painting important locations in Italian cities in a small format, as in this example. Brandeis was not Italian and had been born in modern-day Czechia, but enjoyed great success following her move there in the late 19th century.

Here, Brandeis has painted the Molo from the Bacino. Looking over the almost mirror-like water, one can see many of the most important monuments of Venice, including the Campanile, the Ducal Palace, and the Giardini Reali. The artist’s distinctive use of warm colours is evident here, and this creates the feeling of warmth that must have been present when painting the image. Such a painting would have been an ideal souvenir for a visiting tourist, something that these small-format paintings are known to have been used for.