GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, IL CANALETTO
The Grand Canal, Venice
(1697 – 1768)
Oil on canvas - 18 ¼ x 30 ¼ inches (46.5 x 76.8 cm)
PROVENANCE -
Sir John Brownlow, Bart., 1st Viscount Tyrconnel (1690-1754), Arlington Street, St. James’s, London, by 1738.
His sister and heiress Anne (1694-1779), widow of Sir Richard Cust, by whom removed to Belton House, Lincolnshire, and by descent there through her grandson and heir, Sir Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow (1744-1807), to Peregrine Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow, by whom sold in 1955.
With Leggatt Brothers, London, 1955-6, when acquired by a private collector.
LITERATURE -
The Goods belonging to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Tyrconnel in his Lordship’s House in Arlington Street, St. James’s, London, taken the 22nd and following days in May 1738, Ms. In the Belton Archives, Lincolnshire Record Office, either one of ‘Two views of Venice’ in the Great Parlour or one of ‘Two prospects of Venice by Canaletti’ in the Dining Room.
The Inventory of Pictures of the Right Honle Viscount Tyrconnel, deceased, taken in Arlington Street, St. James’s, 2nd day of April 1754, Ms., one of ‘Two views of Venice. Canaletto’ in the Back Parlour (Ground floor drawing room).
Mr Patch’s Account of the pictures at Belton, Ms., 1779 or shortly after, among four pictures described as ‘Canaletti – A view in Venice’.
The Hon. Elizabeth Cust, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Belton House, Ms., circa 1805-6, described as ‘Canaletti – View of Venice’ in the Red Drawing Room.
Lady Elizabeth Cust, Records of the Cust Family, II, The Brownlows of Belton, 1909, p. 232 (transcript of the 1754 inventory).
W. G. Constable, Canaletto, 1962, II
L. Puppi, L’opera completa del Canaletto, 1968
J. G. Links, Canaletto. The Complete Paintings, 1981
F. Russell, The Picture Collection at Belton in the catalogue of the Christie’s Belton House Sale, 30th April – 2nd May 1984, p. 162
M. Levey, The Later Italian Paintings in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 2nd ed., 1991, p. 27, under no. 387.
G. T. M. Shackleford in the catalogue of the exhibition A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Seattle Art Museum; and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 1994-5, p. 225, note 10.
J. G. Links, A Supplement to W. G. Constable’s Canaletto, 1997