13th Sep, 2024 9:30 GMT/BST
Follower of Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780)
A View of Santa Maria del Salute and the entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, looking East from the Campo Sta. Maria Zobenigo, with the Palazzo Pisani-Gritti, Barges and numerous Gondolas, the Dogana and the Riva degli Schiavoni beyond
Oil on canvas, 62.5cm by 96.5cm
Provenance: Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
Note: This is a copy of a work of Bellotto’s early maturity datable to 1742. The original, re-attributed to Bellotto (having been published as Canaletto – W.G.Constable, Canaletto, Second Edition 1989, vol. 2, cat. 180 (a)) was sold at Christie’s New York, 11th January 1995, lot 25
Lined, fair tension, all keys present. Quantity of dirt and debris behind bottom stretcher. Original tacking margins removed. A little moating/pressing of impasto from lining process, and a few slighly lumpy, unevenly textured patches in the sky (the cause of these is unclear), see images in reflected light. Brittle age craquelure throughout, mostly flat but there are a few sharp elevated peaks in the centre of the sky. There has also been a history of finer scale flaking, and this appears to be active in a few places with some small sharp raised areas of paint below the dome of the Salute (see images in raking light). There a myriad of losses associated with this flaking, which is mostly around the Salute, in the sky and in the buildings on the right, although the vast majority are tiny, and the handful of larger losses are less than 1cm. Some of these are retouched, and some are not. See images. There are further tiny scattered losses throughout, but they are concentrated in the right hand side. The majority of the paint is secure and in good condition. There are a few very minor old losses of paint at the edges, mostly from retouching.
The edges of the painting have been filled out and retouched, approximately 1cm wide around top and sides, and nearer 2cm at the bottom edge. This is visible within the sight of the frame. There is also a little fine scumbled overpaint in places in the sky, and a larger 3x2inch patch of overpaint to the right edge of the sky (see images in UV). It is unclear what this is covering. There is likely more than one campaign of restoration. There are two horizontal drip marks/losses to the left of the door on the left side. It is unclear what these are. There has been a very little thinning of some of the darker delicate passages of paint, mostly in the corbels under the roof on the left and in the red sail at the right.
Old ingrained varnish and dirt, visible in the lighter passages such as the sky, and a more recent upper varnish, slighly yellowed. A layer of surface dirt and a few scattered surface accretions and flyspotting, and one minor matte splash mark to the bottom edge.
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Auction: The Swinton Sale, 13th Sep, 2024
THE SELECTED CONTENTS OF DYKES HILL HOUSE, MASHAM, NORTH YORKSHIRE, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF THE 2nd EARL AND COUNTESS OF SWINTON AND SOLD ON THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE 4th EARL AND FAMILY AND THE TRUSTEES OF THE LORD SWINTON WILL TRUST
The Swinton Sale, will include a selection of fine English and Continental Furniture, Paintings, Sculpture, Chinese Works of Art, Silver, Meissen, Sèvres, Books and Objets d’Art from one of Yorkshire’s most important landed estates.
The Swinton Estate which spans approximately 20,000 acres encompasses some of the most beautiful landscape in North Yorkshire and has been in the ownership of the Cunliffe-Lister family since the 1880s. Dykes Hill House, close to Swinton Park, became the family seat and home to the 2nd Earl and Lady Masham following a life changing injury when she was thrown from her horse shortly before their wedding in 1959, causing her to be paralysed from the waist down.
The 2nd Earl died in 2006 and his widow Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton, Baroness Masham of Ilton, DL, continued to lead a full life as a British crossbench member of the House of Lords. Amongst her many achievements, she was a former Paralympic athlete and was also the founder and lifelong President of the Spinal Injuries Association. She died on 12th March 2023.
Whilst a number of the chattels have been retained by the family, the remaining contents of Dykes Hill House provide a rare glimpse of what epitomises the quintessential taste of the English aristocracy.
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