A capriccio with a pavilion in a walled garden, the lagoon beyond c.1740-60
Pen and ink, with bluish-grey wash, over free and ruled pencil and pinpointing | 20.5 x 29.2 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 907543
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A drawing of an invented landscape, known as a capriccio, which features a pavilion in a walled garden on the left hand side. In the right foreground, two figures are shown by a low wall. The drawing is within a ruled ink border line.
The location has not been established, and it seems likely that this is an invented view. Garden pavilions, perfect little architectural forms serving as summer houses or for entertaining, were a feature of many of the villas of the Venetian nobility on the mainland, several of which were drawn by Canaletto and Bellotto on their tour of the terraferma. In the foreground two figures lean on a garden wall, with architectural fragments, plant pots and so on scattered around. Beyond the rough shore is the lagoon, with a long low building on the horizon, interpreted by Corboz as the hospital of the Lazzaretto Nuovo, on its island to the north-east of Venice. The drawing is a variant of another at in the Royal Collection (RL 7515), in pen only.
Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005Provenance
Purchased by George III from Consul Joseph Smith, 1762
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Medium and techniques
Pen and ink, with bluish-grey wash, over free and ruled pencil and pinpointing
Measurements
20.5 x 29.2 cm (sheet of paper)
Other number(s)
RL 7543