Lot 46: JOHANN RICHTER

VENICE, A VIEW OF THE MOLO, LOOKING WEST TOWARDS SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE AND THE PALAZZO DUCALE TO THE RIGHT

81.6 by 116 cm.; 32 1/4 by 45 5/8 in.

oil on canvas

In the collection of the present owner's family in Edinburgh since the late 19th century.

Hitherto unrecorded and unpublished this is one of Giovanni Richter's most impressive views and certainly one of his largest. Richter is documented in Venice from circa 1710 and while references to him are scant, one of the few mentions of him comes in the form of a letter, dated 25 December 1717, from Antonio Balestra, in which he describes Richter's paintings as: '... quadretti... fatti con tutto amore... professando particolar propensione alla sua compiutezza.'

The present view is clearly inspired and influenced by the work of Richter's presumed master, Luca Carlevarijs, both in composition and execution. The view, looking west along the Molo towards the Biblioteca Marciana and the church of Santa Maria della Salute, was Carlevarijs' favourite and Richter's treatment of it owes a great deal to the examples of his master. In terms of viewpoint it comes closest to the Carlevarijs in Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, but in terms of colouring and execution, the latter of certain figures in particular, the painting echoes any of the views amongst Carlevarijs' oeuvre. There are several motifs unique to Richter however, notably the principal figure group huddled around the magician, which recurs, with slight differences in a lost work of the same view known only through Bernard Vogel's engraving, (1) and the barge at the extreme left which recurs in several other works; see, for example, the views sold New York, Christie's, 24 January 2003, lot 162, and New York, Sotheby's, 16 May 1996, lot 73.

1. See I. Reale & D. Succi, Luca Carlevarijs e la veduta veneziana del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Padua 1994, p. 119, fig. 6.