Marine View Boats James Webb Paint Oil on canvas 19th Century English Water See

1869

Antoine Bouvard, called Marc Aldine (L'Isere 1875 - Paris 1957) Signed 'Bouvard' lower right View of Venice with the Grand Canal (link) oil on canvas 60 x 86 cm Framed 70 x 96 cm. Very good condition We present an evocative view of Venice with a glimpse of the fascinating Grand Canal, signed by the famous French Vedutist Antoine Bouvard, also known by his pseudonym, Marc Aldine. Considered one of the most talented illustrators of the lagoon city who worked there in the first part of the 20th century, he became one of the most acclaimed vedutists of that period, with a success that led him to exhibit throughout France and Italy as well as in numerous European galleries...

Pair of views of Rotterdam: The Stock Exchange building / View of the canal with the old port Eighteenth-century Vedutist painter oils on canvas 47 x 66 cm. - with frame 56 x 75 cm. This pleasant pair of paintings depict two glimpses of the city of Rotterdam, investigated here as vivid documentaries of the habits and customs from the public life of the wealthy Dutch port city, as well as one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, is an excellent example of 18th century Vedutism We see, in particular, in the first work the monumental Palazzo della Borsa (defined as Il Beurs), designed by the architect Adriaen van der Werff in Westnieuwland, initially a place destined for legislation on trade, where merchant-bankers met periodically to exchange securities credit and enter into sales; it is located on the bank of the Nordblaak River and shot with the Gaapers Bridge in the foreground. The second work immortalizes the docking of the ancient port of Rotterdam, with the foreground view of the two city gates (the Wester Old Hoofdpoort on the left and the Ooster Oude Hoofdpoort on the right); in the background on the left the St. Laurenskerk (Church of San Lorenzo), also called the Great Church of Rotterdam, is the only medieval structure, while on the right the English Church. Very well executed, characterized by a marked brightness and a chromatic range with bright colors and highlighted by the contrast between lights and shadows, our canvases are a very interesting testimony of eighteenth-century Rotterdam, portraying two of the views that have historically influenced a lot on economic history of the city. We can attribute the authorship to an author of the full eighteenth century, inspired by the pictorial style of the Italian landscape painters and whose iconography was presumably drawn from the numerous prints with perspective views made through the optical cameras. In particular, these views of Rotterdam draw their iconographic origin from a collection of perspective prints of the most influential European cities, made by the engraver Johann Balthasar Probst (1732-1801), characterized by a remarkable refinement in the line, at the service of a sense of perspective of undoubted value, and above all characterized by a strong Nordic taste. Descendant of a large family of Augsburg engravers, Probst contributed to making his workshop an important European publishing center between the 17th and 18th centuries, among the major German print publishers in the first half of the 18th century. Despite his travels, including in Italy, between Venice, Rome and Naples, not all the cities he portrayed were drawn from life but taken from earlier prints and drawings and filtered through northern European clichés. Many of these engravings have been lost and are now difficult to find on the antiques market.