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BONINGTON, Richard Parkes

Arnold (Nottinghamshire), 1802 - London, 1828

Vue de Venise, le quai des Esclavons et le palais des Doges

The Ducal Palace Venice, From the Riva Degli Schiavoni

Oil on canvas

H. 0.41; W. 0.54

Paris, musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures

RF 368

Painting

Inheritance of Mme Milliet; Given to the Louvre by Milliet, Schubert, and Hauguet in 1883.

19th century

Comments

This view of Venice has much in common with a body of work that occupies an important place in the tradition of Venetian painting: topographical depictions, which also have great documentary interest. Bonington knew the work of the uncontested master of the "veduta, " or cityscape, the Venetian Antonio Canaletto. With his perfect command of detail and precise stroke, Canaletto had influenced a number of English painters (such as Samuel Scott and William Marlow) during his time London in the middle of the eighteenth century. Bonington's work brings together several elements: an architectural view combined with the picturesque bustle of a cityscape in a work that has also assimilated the Italian chiaroscuro tradition in painting. Moreover, one can detect the influence of Flemish painting in the group of tradesmen in the foreground. The imaginative cast of this work stems from its reliance on the comfortable familiarity of the everyday, its contrasting treatment of light, and, more generally, its lyrical approach. In the eighteenth century, English artists had grown very fond of the pictorial techniques and other lessons that could be learned from the great painters of the Italian Renaissance. The early nineteenth century marked the advent of Romanticism in the arts, and a fascination for Italy and its incredible luminosity continued to exert a profound influence on artists. However, the rediscovery of landscape painting in England encouraged artists to create a new style in which nature was observed more subtly and more simply. Bonington's works, falling between realism and Romanticism, were in harmony with this new approach to landscape painting. Source: Selected Works - Louvre Museum - Paintings.

Bibliography

Maurice Noël, "Le centenaire de Bonington", Le Figaro, Paris, 18 octobre 1928, p. 6-8.

Marcelle Nicole, "La peinture au Musée du Louvre. Ecole Anglaise, L'Illustration, Paris, 1929, p. 37.

The Hon. Andrew Shirley, Bonington, Londres, 1940, p. 112.

Marion Spencer, Cat. exp.  R.P. Bonington, 1802-1828. Nottingham: Castle Museum And art Gallery, 1965, n°286.

Cormack, 1989, p128, reproduction n°105

 Patrick Noon, Cat. exp. Richard Parkes Bonington: on the pleasure of painting. New Haven, Yale center for british And, Paris, Musée du Petit-Palais, 1991-1992, n°132.

Isabelle Compin, "Richard Parkes Bonington", Cat. exp. Exposition du bicentenaire du Musée du Louvre, Kobé, Musée Municipal, Yokohama, Musée d'Art, Tokyo, Ihon Keizai Shibun, 30 mars - 5 juillet 1993, n°15, p. 160-161.

Olivier Meslay, Arlette Serullaz, Barthélémy Jobert, cat. exp. D'Outre-Manche, l'art britannique dans les collections publiques françaises, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 19 septembre - 19 décembre 1994, éd. de la RMN, 1994, p.32, n°2.

Olivier Meslay, Cat. exp. Le paysage dans la peinture occidentale du XVIe au XIXe siècle, chefs d'oeuvre du musée du Louvre, Taïpeh, 17 septembre 1995 - 31 décembre 1995, repr. p.175, p.300.

Cat. exp. Louvre: le paysage dans la peinture occidentale du XVIe au XIXe siècle, Séoul, Musée National de Corée, 23 octobre 2006 - 18 mars 2007, n°47, 126.

Patrick Noon, Richard Parkes Bonington, The complete paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008, p.290, fig.229.