PROVENANCE -

Private Collection, Germany.

These two paintings form part of the group of works currently given the moniker ‘The Master of the Langmatt Foundation Views’, or ‘The Langmatt Master’, who was so christened after thirteen Venetian views in the Langmatt Foundation, Baden, Switzerland. In two sets, nine measuring 47 x 73 cm. and four 25.5 x 38 cm., those were introduced to a wider audience by their exhibition in 1994, with a catalogue edited by Gertrude Borghero ().[i] The appellation has since gained general currency, the master being credited with a considerable number of paintings – capricci, landscapes and views of Rome as well as of Venice – and recognised as a significant figure in Venetian view painting through the middle decades of the eighteenth century.[ii] While the only dated example among the paintings attributed to him (a view of Rome derived from a Canaletto drawing) is of 1746, he seems to have been quite attentive in recording topographical changes (notably stages in the construction of the Palazzo Grassi), which is particularly useful in establishing the parameters of his career. On topographical grounds the Langmatt Foundation paintings can be dated around 1745/50. Following the death of Michele Marieschi in 1743, during Canaletto’s absence in England for most of 1746-1755, and before the emergence of Francesco Guardi in the late 1750s the ‘master’ was evidently available to satisfy a demand which was otherwise little catered for. The quantity of work in this style, and the wide range of quality, show that he ran a busy studio.

At one time paintings by this hand were occasionally attributed to the Lucchese artist Gaetano Vetturali (1701-1783), who worked in Venice and who, according to A. Mazzarosa’s Guida di Lucca (1843) painted views which were mistaken for those of Canaletto. However, the Langmatt Master’s stylistic characteristics reveal nothing to suggest that he was not a Venetian native. More recently many of his paintings used to be attributed to Francesco Tironi, but Tironi was later (he probably died around 1800) and his style, known from a number of signed paintings and securely attributable drawings, is quite distinct. Dario Succi has recently proposed an identification with Apollonio Domenichini, who, according to Antonio Selva’s catalogue of the paintings in the collection of Count Bonomo Algarotti completed in 1776, was born in 1715, and who was inscribed in the Venetian painters’ guild in 1757 and probably deceased by 1776.[iii] His name occurs several times in the correspondence, preserved in the library of the Museo Correr in Venice, between the Venetian dealer Giovanni Maria Sasso and John Strange, British Resident in Venice 1774-86. The pair of capricci once in the Algarotti collection remain unidentified, however, and there are no signed or securely documented works. The main problem with this suggestion is that in one of the few early documentary references to him, ‘Menichino’ is described as a pupil of Luca Carlevarijs.[iv] The Langmatt Master’s style has little to do with that of Carlevarijs, but is intimately related to that of Michele Marieschi’s disciple Francesco Albotto (Venice 1721-1757).

Compositions tended to be repeated in the Langmatt studio, always with different boats and figures, and varying widely in quality. Although neither of these compositions features in the Langmatt Foundation set, they were popular and a number of variants of both are known. 

[i] G. Borghero, catalogue oft he exhibition Mythos Venedig: Venezianische Veduten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney und Jenny Brown, Baden, 8 June – 31 October 1994.

[ii] See, for instance, F. Pedrocco, Visions of Venice: Paintings of the 18th Century, London, 2002, pp. 188-92.

[iii] D. Succi in the catalogue of the exhibition da canaletto a zuccarelli: il paesaggio veneto del Settecento, Villa Manin di Passariano, 2003, pp. 103-7.

[iv] G. Moschini, Dalla letteratura veneziana del secolo XVIII a’ nostri giorni, Venice, 1806, p. 87.