Provenance:

Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy, Imperial Apartments, Procuratie Nuove, Venice, and by descent to HRH Princess Pia of Savoy, Switzerland, until 2024.

A study for the larger painting in the Modern Galleries in Palazzo Pitti, Florence, commissioned by Vittorio Emanuele and presumably always housed there, as Florence was the capital of Italy 1865-70. He evidently also retained this sketch, hanging it in his residence in Venice itself.

There are extensive variations from the finished work and a very evident pentimento in the lower right corner of a figure omitted from the final composition.

Contemporary accounts record that the event took place on a notably misty day, an effect less apparent in the final painting.

Giuseppe Gavagnin was the son of the history painter Leonardo Gavagnin (Venice 1809-1887). His brothers Napoleone (b. Venice 1840) and Natale (b. Venice 1851) were also painters.