The Grand Canal, Venice

c. 1760

Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)

Although he did not begin to paint views (vedute) until he was in his mid-40s, Francesco Guardi soon became an accomplished practitioner in the genre. He was strongly influenced by the precisely rendered Venetian scenes of Canaletto and Michele Marieschi. In this work, one of his most important early cityscapes, Guardi depicted the mouth of the Grand Canal hustling with late-afternoon activity. The church of Santa Maria della Salute and the customhouse are visible on the right. The emotional tenor of Guardi’s vedute—seen here in the brooding, melancholy aura of the sky—distinguishes them from the works of his predecessors.

Status: On View, Gallery 217
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Francesco Guardi
Title: The Grand Canal, Venice
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1755–1765
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed lower left, on box: Fran Guardi
Dimensions: 73 × 119.4 cm (28 3/4 × 47 in.)
Credit Line: Wirt D. Walker Fund
Reference Number: 1951.21
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111074/manifest.json

Bernhard Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance with an Index to their Works, Third ed. (New York, 1903), p. 109.
Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, Vol. 1 (New York, 1913), pp. 452, 454.
Antonio Morassi, “Conclusioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi,” Emporium 64 (1951), pp. 297, 214, fig. 17.
“Recent Accessions: From Two European Theaters for Two American Galleries,” Art Digest 26, no. 13 (1952), p. 10.
“Recent Purchases and Gifts,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 46 (1952), p. 71.
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1956), p. 27.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae 16 (1961), p. 518.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 207-208.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, Francesco Guardi (Lisbon, 1966), p. 17.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, “La Pittura Veneta del Settecento alla Mostra Itinerante di Chicago-Minneapolis-Toledo,” Arte Veneta 24 (1970), p. 290.
“Where Lemon Trees Blossom,” Apollo 92 (1970), pp. 172, 176, fig. 12.
Antonio Morassi, Guardi: Antonio e Francesco Guardi (Venice, 1973), vol. 1, pp. 230, 243, no. 464, vol. II, no. 469.
Luigina Rossi Bortolatto, L’opera completa di Francesco Guardi (Milan, 1974), p. 87, no. 273.
Antonio Morassi, Guardi: Tutti I disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi (Venice, 1975), p. 141.
Janice J. Feldstein and Maureen Smith, eds., The Art Institute of Chicago: 100 Masterpieces (Chicago, 1978), no. 33.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York, 1979), p. 160.
Antonio Morassi, Guardi: I disegni (Venice, 1984), p. 141.
Sergio Bettini et al., Arte in Veneto (Milan, 1987), pp. 408-9.
Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings: From the Early Renaissance to the Present Day, vol. II (London, 1992), p. 672.
Ateneo Veneto, Premio Pietro Torta per il Restauro di Venezia (Venice, 1995), pp. 23-25, ill.
Giovanna Nepi Sciré, Giandomenico Romanelli, and William L. Barcham, Splendori del Settecento Veneziano (Milan, 1995), p. 326.
Francis Russell, “Guardi and the English Tourist,” Burlington Magazine 138 (1996), p. 7.
Timothy Llewellyn, “Qualche Veduta della Laguna,” in I Guardi: Vedute, capricci, feste, disegni e «quadri turcheschi», edited by Alessandro Bettagno (Venice, 2002), pp. 33-34, fig. 31.
Mario Manzelli, Michele Marieschi e il suo alter-ego Francesco Albotto, 2nd edition (Venice, 2002), p. VI.
Maria Elisa Avagnina, Margaret Binotto, and Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, Pinacoteca civica di Vicenza: Dipinti del XVII e XVIII secolo (Venice, 2004), p. 475.

London, British Institution, Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters with which the Proprietors have Favoured the Institution, 1840, no. 129.
London, Royal Academy of Art, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School; including a Special Selection from the Works of Paul Falconer Poole, R.A., 1884, no. 158.
London, New Gallery, Exhibition of Venetian Art, 1894-5, no. 264.
Detroit, Institute of Arts, September 30 – November 2, 1952 and Indianapolis, John Herron Institute of Arts, November 15 – December 31, 1952, Venice 1700-1800, no. 23.
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Painters’ Painters, April 16 – June 2, 1954, no. 11.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mozart Memorial, January – February, 1956, no cat.
Champaign, University of Illinois, Venetian Villas, November 1956, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, September 19 – November 8, 1970, Minneapolis, Institute of Arts, December 3, 1970 - January 10, 1971, and Toledo, Museum of Art, February 7 – March 21, 1971, Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century, no. 22.
Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini Instituto di Storia dell’Arte, Franceso Guardi: Vedute, Capricci, Feste, August 28-November 28, 1993, cat. 30.

S(amuel) C(harles) Weston, Esq, London by 1840 [according to Graves 1913, p. 452]; by descent to his son, Alexander Anderdon Weston, Esq., London, died 1901 [according to Venice 1993, no. 30, pp. 106-7]; his widow Isabella Frances Weston, died 1922; sold by order of the Trustees of Isabella Frances Weston, Christie’s, London, October 21, 1949, no. 31, to Koetser for £7,200 pounds [according to annotated catalogue at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago]; Koetser Gallery, New York; sold to the Art Institute in 1951.

Audio stop 760.mp3 <li class="m-listing m-listing--inline m-listing--sound"> <div class="m-listing__link"> <div class="m-listing__meta--sound"> Audio stop 760.mp3 </div> <div> <audio class="video-js vjs-fluid m-vjs-audio " data-gtm-prefix="audio" data-gtm-title="Audio stop 760.mp3" controls > <source src="https://www.artic.edu/assets/b2a61f4b-5fd0-cef6-c893-210ef05463f6" type="audio/mpeg"> Your browser does not support the audio tag. </audio> </div> </div> </li>

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

On View

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

Explore Further

Suggested Terms

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Multimedia

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.