Guglielmo Ciardi (Italian, 1842-1917)

A Venetian painter par excellence, Guglielmo Ciardi approached his subject in a manner that was wholly different from artists of all nationalities who painted in the city in the latter half of the 19th century. Instead of the obvious sites of La Serenissima, ever popular with patrons and rooted in a long tradition of vedute artists stretching back 150 years, Ciardi sought above all to render the light and atmosphere of the Lagoon, and the inland areas of the Veneto region.
Together with Giacomo Favretto and Luigi Nono, Ciardi is credited with introducing these modern ideas to Venice and thereby renewing Venetian painting in the second half of the nineteenth century.
In the present work the artist deftly captures the luminous effects of the sunset as it plays against the myriad textures of the water in the Lagoon.