Object Information

Francesco Guardi
Italian, 1712–1793

The Garden of Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo, late 1770s

Oil on canvas
19 x 30 5/8 in. (48 x 78 cm)
Gift of Marion and Max Ascoli Fund, 1991.112

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

On summer loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1978, 1981, 1982, and 1983.

Publication History

Antonio Morassi, “Settecento inedito (II). VIII. Quattro ‘Ville’ del Guardi,” Arte veneta 4 (1950) p. 50, fig. 46.

J. Byam Shaw, The Drawings of Francesco Guardi (London, 1951), p. 65, under no. 30.

Royal Academy of Arts, London, European Masters of the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. 1954–55, p. 40, under no. 89 and p. 158, under no. 575.

J. Byam Shaw, “Guardi at the Royal Academy,” Burlington Magazine, 97, (1955), p. 16.

K. T. Parker, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. II, Italian Schools (Oxford, 1956), pp. 509–510, under no. 1014.

Francis Haskell, “Francesco Guardi as Vedutista and Some of His Patrons,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 23 (1960), pp. 269–270.

Rodolfo Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del settecento (Venice, 1963), p. 248.

Winslow Ames, “The Villa dal Timpano Arcuato’ by Francesco Guardi,” Master Drawings, I, 3 (1963), pp. 37–38.

Pietro Zampetti, Mostra dei Guardi, exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1965, p. 266, under no. 139.

Francis J. B. Watson, “Guardi in England,” in Problemi quardeschi: Atti del convegno di studi promosso dalla mostra dei Guardi (Venice, 1967), p. 210.

J. Byam Shaw, J.B.S. Selected Writings (London, 1968), pp. 117–118.

Denys Sutton, Italian Drawings from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, exh. cat. Wildenstein, London, 1970, under no. 69.

Jacob Bean and Felice Stempfle, Drawings from New York Collections III: The Eighteenth Century in Italy, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, p. 87, under no. 207.

Antonio Morassi, preface to Mercedes Precerutti-Garberi, Frescoes from Italian Villas (New York, 1971), pp. 1–2.

Everett Fahy, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. 5, Paintings, Drawings (New York, 1973), pp. 106–115, fig. 3.

Antonio Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi (Venice, 1973), pp. 436–437, no. 680, fig. 635.

Antonio Morassi, Guardi, Tutti I desegni di Antonio, Francesco, e Giacomo Guardi (Venice, 1975), pp. 63, 153, no. 419.

Important Old Master Pictures, Christie’s, London, December 8, 1989, pp. 162–165, under no. 114.

Jacob Bean and William Griswold, 18th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, pp. 108, 112, under no. 93.

Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1990–91, Chicago 1991, pp. 13, (ill.), 19.

Colnaghi in America. A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi in New York, edited by Nicholas H. J. Hall, New York, 1992, p. 104.

Dario Succi, Francesco Guardi. Itinerario dell’avventura artistica, Cinisello Balsamo, 1993, pp. 98–103.

Paul Jeromack, “Panorama del collezionismo pubblico nell’America del Nord, 1990–1995” in Pittura italiana antica. Artisti e opere del Seicento e del Settecento, ed. by Alessandro Morandotti, Milan, 2000, pp. 57 (ill.), 58.

Ownership History

One of series of four viewed in Venice and the Veneto, presumably painted for John Strange (died 1799), British resident in Venice between 1773 and 1788; sale of his collection, European Museum, London, May 27, 1799, no. 49 (bought in); sale of his collection, Christie’s, London, March 15, 1800, no. 99. Colonel Milligan of Caldwell Hall, Burton-on-Trent; Nottinghamshire; sold, Christie’s, London, March 13, 1883, no. 358 or 359, to Davies [this information given in Christie’s sale catalogue, December 8, 1989 under no. 114, Villa Loredan from the same series]; Charles Davies, London. Colnaghi’s, London [Ames 1963, p. 37 states that Rothermere acquired the series from Colnaghi]; Harold Sidney Harmsworth, first Vicount Rothermere (died 1940) [the series of four paintings was intact on the death of Lord Rothermere, but appears to have been sold separately and privately after his death, see Fahy 1973, p. 111]. Knoedler, New York [according to Knoedler label on the back with stock no. 423 [5 or 6] 2]. Alfred Frankfurter, New York [letter from Alfred Frankfurter to Mr. and Mrs. Ascoli dated July 16, 1947, copy in curatorial file]; Dr. and Mrs. Max Ascoli, New York, by 1947 [letter cited above]; given to the Marion and Max Ascoli Fund; given to the Art Institute, 1991.