John Singer Sargent - Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, 1903-1907

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(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)

Object details

Accession number

P3w31

Primary Creator

John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)

Full title

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Creation Date

1903-1907

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")

Marks

Signed in ink (bottom right): John S. Sargent
Inscribed in ink (verso): 1374; 4

Dimensions

34.9 x 53.5 cm (13 3/4 x 21 1/16 in.)

Display Media

Watercolor on paper

Dimension Notes

Frame: 55 cm x 70 cm (21 5/8 in. x 27 9/16 in.)

Web 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.

Permanent Gallery Location

Blue Room

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.

Rights and reproductions

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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.