Object details
Object number
P3w31
Creator(s)
John Singer Sargent
(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Title
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
Date
1903-1907
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
34.9 x 53.5 cm (13 3/4 x 21 1/16 in.)
Additional Dimensions
Frame: 55 cm x 70 cm (21 5/8 in. x 27 9/16 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Signed in ink (bottom right): John S. Sargent
Inscribed in ink (verso): 1374; 4
Provenance
Gift from John Singer Sargent to Alice Faraday (1847–1952), widow of the English artist Frederick Barnard (1846–1896) in 1903–1907.
Robinson & Farr, Philadelphia.
Sold to M. Knoedler & Co., New York on 27 December 1915. [ as "The Giudecca, Venice" (stock book, no. WC 1032)]
Ehrich Galleries, New York, December 1916.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the gallery Doll & Richards, Boston on 26 October 1916 for $1,250. (as "The Giudecca, Venice")
Commentary
By depicting the back of Santa Maria della Salute, Sargent renders this iconic Venetian site from an unusual, less formal perspective. The cropped view of fishing boats moored in the Giudecca Canal suggests the spontaneity of a modern snapshot. With its golden sunlight and striking composition, this is one of Sargent’s most brilliant watercolors.
Source: Oliver Tostmann and Anne-Marie Eze, The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection, exhibition on view in the Museum's Fenway Gallery, October 31, 2013–January 20, 2014.
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 35.
David McKibbin. "Sargent's Water-Colours of Venice at Fenway Court." Fenway Court (1970), pp. 19-25, fig 1.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 230-31.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2004), p. 157, fig. 107.
Gallery
Blue Room
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