Francesco Guardi (Venice 1712-1793)

Dated by Pallucchini (op. cit.) to the early 1760s, this painting is part of series of four capriccios now dispersed. When exhibited together in Munich in 1958, lent by the 9th duque de Montellano, Morassi admired them for their perfect state of preservation and the masterly but rapid sequence of brushstrokes, which allows the viewer to virtually follow the painter's hand during the work's execution: 'le quattro splendide tele sono paradigmatiche per sintetizzare l'arte di Francesco nel fantasioso genere del "grande capriccio"' (op. cit). The other three paintings are: A capriccio with rural buildings by a lagoon, A capriccio with an obelisk and a Maritime pine near a lagoon, and A capriccio with fishermen by their tent, and a village by the lagoon in the distance (see Morassi, op. cit., I, nos. 877, no. 911 and no. 917 respectively).

The beauty of the composition and the brilliance of the execution in this painting are still visible even after recent fire damage. A smaller (34 x 52 cm.), crisply painted version, with variants, is in a private collection in Milan (Morassi, op. cit, II, fig. 752).