The Canals of Venice

A note to the readers of Zaidan Gallery

A note to the readers of Zaidan Gallery

It is with great sadness that we share the news that the author of this blog, Henry Zaidan (1948-2025), has passed away.

Henry started this site to collect, organize, and share the art he loved. Over the years he built Zaidan Gallery into a rich archive that ranges from religious icons and biblical scenes to marine painting, Orientalist works, portraits, Venice and Paris cityscapes, Middle Eastern artists, mythology, the art of the nude, and the “365 Saints” series with its careful dates, attributions, and footnotes.

Most of the posts here follow the same quiet rhythm: the work, the artist, the date, the medium, the story behind the image, and links to further reading. He wasn’t trying to be an art critic. He was building a reference library – patient, detailed, and open to anyone who was curious enough to click.

For those of you who subscribed, bookmarked posts, or wandered in from a search result and stayed to read the footnotes: thank you. This community of readers mattered to him.

We intend to keep this blog online as an accessible archive of his interests and research. We hope you will continue to browse, revisit favorite posts, and share them with others who care about art and history.

On behalf of Henry’s family,
Titiana, Michael, and George

04 Works of the Canals of Venice, by Edmund Dulac after Alfred de Musset poem, with footnotes. #132

Edmund Dulac

Venise

Watercolour

354 x 272 mm. (13 7/8 x 10 3/4 in.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 6,250 in Dec 2015

This watercolour is the first of a series of four drawings used to illustrate the poem Venise by Alfred de Musset (1810-1857). Dulac’s illustrations were deemed to be the ideal accompaniment to de Musset’s poem, as noted on the cover of this particular issue; ‘The indolent and voluptuous Venice of Alfred de Musset, evoked in compositions of a mysterious and disturbing charm by the very personal art of Edmund Dulac, that is the surprise reserved for the admirers of this prestigious watercolourist as well as for lovers of the old city of the Doges.

Edmund Dulac

Preparing for the ball, c. 1912

Pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on paper

I have no further description, at this time

A woman of the XVIIIth century. The scene is set in a typical interior of the period, recognisable by the furniture, armchair and bench in the Louis XV style. The interior is richly decorated with curtains and a dressing table. The woman is standing with a mask in her hand. This scene represents something very common in painting, the masquerade. This mask represents the role that the nobility plays. Indeed, in this period, the nobility are in perpetual representation. More on this painting

Edmund Dulac

Venise: The Carnival, St Mark's, Venice

Pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on paper

12 1/8 x 9 ¾ in. (30.8 x 24.8 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 25,000 in Jul 2021

The artist's wife, Elsa Bignardi, dressing for a masked ball, waiting for her lover in an archway beside the water, masked in a group of figures in the present drawing, and in the final work, reclining with her lover in a gondola. These are some of the last of Dulac's works using the distinctive rich dark blue tonality we see here. More on this painting

Edmund Dulac

Reclining with her lover in a gondola

Pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on paper

I have no further description, at this time

The model for the woman in this drawing is the artist’s wife Elsa Bignardi. Dulac’s illustration was captioned by one stanza of de Musset’s poem: ‘-Ah! maintenant plus d’une / Attend, au clair de lune, / Quelque jeune muguet, / L’oreille au guet.’ The other three drawings by Dulac used to illustrate the poem - each with the prominent figure of Elsa – depicted a woman getting ready for a masked ball, a pair of lovers in a gondola, accompanied by a musician, and a scene of masked figures in the Piazza San Marco. The drawings for Venise are among the last of the artist’s works in this distinctive tonality.

Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac; 22 October 1882 – 25 May 1953) was a French British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse he studied law but later turned to the study of art at the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I, Dulac produced relief books and when after the war the deluxe children's book market shrank he turned to magazine illustrations among other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. More on Edmund Dulac

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at deviantart and Aaroko

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, Federico del Campo's Santa Maria Zobenigo, with footnotes #131

Federico del Campo (Peruvian, 1837-1923)

Santa Maria Zobenigo, Venice, c. 1892

Oil on panel

20.5 x 12.5cm (8 1/16 x 4 15/16in)

Private collection

Sold for £10,062.50 in June 2020

The church, whose name translates into St. Mary of the Lily, referring to the flower classically depicted as being presented by the Angel Gabriel during the Annunciation, is more commonly known as Santa Maria Zobenigo after the Jubanico family who founded it in the 9th century. The edifice is situated on the Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, west of the Piazza San Marco. It was rebuilt by Giuseppe Sardi for Admiral Antonio Barbaro between 1678 and 1681 and has one of the finest Venetian Baroque facades in all of Venice. The church is now part of the parish of San Moisè. More on Santa Maria Zobenigo

Federico del Campo (1837-1923) was a Peruvian painter who was active in Venice where he was one of the leading vedute painters of the 19th century. Del Campo was born in Lima and left his native Peru at a young age. Nothing is known with certainty about his early studies in Peru. He studied at Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in Madrid from around 1865. Here he established a friendship with Lorenzo Valles, a history painter. Del Campo subsequently travelled to Italy and painted in Naples, Capri, Rome, Assisi and Venice. During a visit to France he studied new artistic developments in Paris. From 1880, he exhibited works at the annual Salon van de Société des Artistes Français. In 1880 he established himself in Venice.

Here there already was a seizable community of emigré artists, such as Antonietta Brandeis, and the Spanish painters Martín Rico y Ortega, Mariano Fortuny and Rafael Senet. He became good friends with Martín Rico. The two artists worked sometimes together painting the Venetian scenes that were popular with the increasing number of visitors to that city. They responded thus to the large international market for their city views of Venice. Demand for del Campo's views was so strong, that he painted several views multiple times.

Particularly English tourists were taken by del Campo’s vedute of Venice. This was probably the reason why he moved to London in 1893 where he worked for a clientele of aristocrats and successful merchants. He was represented by art dealer Arthur Tooth who was able to organize a special exhibition of his work in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. This success likely ensured del Campo’s comfortable life style. Little is known about his last two decades but it is likely that he died in London in 1923. More on Federico del Campo

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, Terrick Williams' Moonlight, Venice, with footnotes #130

Terrick Williams, (1860-1936)

Moonlight, Venice

Oil on canvas

71 x 107 cm.

Private collection

Estimated for 18 000 - 20 600 USD in May 2020

John Terrick Williams RA (20 July 1860 – 20 July 1936). Williams was born in Liverpool, England, the son of a businessman. He was educated at Kings College School, London. Determination to become an artist he move to Europe and studied under Charles Verlat in Antwerp and later at the Académie Julian and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury in Paris.

Williams focussed on landscape and marine subjects and painted in oil, pastel and watercolour. He travelled extensively and his impressionistic, luminous paintings sought the transient effects of light and reflections in Venice, St. Tropez, Paris, Brittany and St. Ives.

He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1904. His work was regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1891. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) on 18 November 1924, a Royal Academician (R.A.) on 14 February 1933, and a Senior R.A. on 1 January 1936. In 1933 he was also elected President of the RI. He died on his birthday in 1936 aged 76. After his death a memorial exhibition was held at the Fine Art Society in 1937. More on John Terrick Williams

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, Federico del Campo's Santa Maria Zobenigo, Venice, with footnotes #129

Federico del Campo, (PERUVIAN, 1837-1923)

Santa Maria Zobenigo, Venice, c. 1892

O on panel

20.5 x 12.5cm (8 1/16 x 4 15/16in)

Private collection

Sold for £10,062.50 in Jun 2020

The church, whose name translates into St. Mary of the Lily referring to the flower classically depicted as being presented by the Angel Gabriel during the Annunciation, is more commonly known as Santa Maria Zobenigo after the Jubanico family who founded it in the 9th century. The edifice is situated on the Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, west of the Piazza San Marco. It was rebuilt by Giuseppe Sardi for Admiral Antonio Barbaro between 1678 and 1681 and has one of the finest Venetian Baroque facades in all of Venice. The church is now part of the parish of San Moisè. More on Santa Maria Zobenigo

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, John Aldridge's Grand Canal, Early Morning, with footnotes. #127

JOHN ARTHUR MALCOLM ALDRIDGE (BRITISH, 1905-1983)

Grand Canal, Early Morning, c. 1963

Oil on board

27 x 35.5cm (10 5/8 x 14in).

Private collection

Sold for £3,812.50 in May 2020

John Aldridge was educated at Uppingham School and at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. From 1928 to 1933 he lived in London, making frequent visits to Holland, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. In 1933 he moved to Essex, settling in Great Barfield. At the time he was one of a group of artists including Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden who found inspiration in the Essex countryside. They later collected together an exhibition of their own pictures which toured the villages of Essex. His first one-man show was at the Leicester Galleries, London in 1933, he later exhibited with the Seven and Five Society alongside artists such as Ben Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, David Jones and John Piper. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1963. Although he never went to art school, Aldridge became a remarkable and valued part-time teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art. Besides painting in oils, Aldridge designed textiles and wallpapers, and illustrated books. His pictures are built up out of the commonplace ingredients that any observant person could have found in the villages and fields and back gardens of Essex. Aldridge proved again, what so many artists have proved before him, that subject matter is no more than a starting point for adventure. More on John Aldridge

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, John Randall Bratby's Venice Canal, with footnotes, #126

JOHN BRATBY R.A. (BRITISH, 1928-1992)

Venice Canal, c. 1987-88

Oil on canvas

122 x 76cm (48 1/16 x 29 15/16in).

Private collection

Sold for £2,040 in May 2020

John Randall Bratby (1928-1992), studied at the Royal College of Art (1951-54), and it was for his generation of RCA students that David Sylvester coined the phrase 'Kitchen Sink', to describe the realism of their art. In 1956 he was included in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 1957 won first prize in the Junior Section of the John Moores Liverpool exhibition. Bratby's vigorous realism with its debt to Van Gogh and Soutine went out of fashion in a time of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art in the 60s, during which he wrote the semi-autobiographical Breakdown (1960). In the 1970s he made it his task to paint portraits of 'names', from tycoons and businessmen to television stars. He became a Royal Academician in 1971. More on John Randall Bratby

More works by John Randall Bratby

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02 Works of the Canals of Venice, Alfred Stieglitz's Venetian Well, with footnotes, #124

Alfred Stieglitz, (American, 1864-1946)

A Venetian Well, 1893

Photogravure

4-7/8 x 7-1/4 inches (12.4 x 18.4 cm)
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Alfred Stieglitz

A Venetian Well, c. 1894

Platinum print

20.6 × 16 cm (8 1/8 × 6 5/16 in.)

The National Gallery of Art

Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was the eldest child of highly cultured and prosperous parents. The family of eight spent winters in New York City and summered on the shores of Lake George in upper New York State, as did Stieglitz until his death in 1946. The family went abroad in 1881, where Alfred pursued advanced training in Germany, first as an engineer, and after 1883 as a photographer. By the time he returned to New York in 1890, the quality of his work and the originality of his technical research had earned him a considerable reputation and he soon became widely recognized as one of America's leading artists in photography. Through publications such as Camera Notes (1897-1900) and Camera Work (1903-17), and his active role in photography exhibitions, he played a pivotal role in introducing to Americans the idea that photography, far from just a means of providing a mechanical record, was an art form with its own aesthetic qualities and standards.

In the years before and during World War I, Stieglitz exhibited the work of many of Europe's leading avant-garde artists, as well as emerging American artists and photographers, at the Photo-Secession Gallery, 291. In a succession of galleries thereafter he supported such distinguished American artists as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), and Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986). More on Alfred Stieglitz

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, Martín Rico y Ortega's Gondolier in a Venetian Canal, with footnotes. #125

Martín Rico y Ortega, Spanish, 1833 - 1908

Gondolier in a Venetian Canal

Oil on canvas

20 by 16⅛ in.; 50.8 by 41 cm

Private collection

Estimated for 20,000 - 30,000 USD in Apr 2020

Martín Rico y Ortega (12 November 1833, El Escorial – 13 April 1908, Venice, Italy) was a Spanish painter of landscapes and cityscapes. Rico was one of the most important artists of the second half of the nineteenth century in his native country, and enjoyed wide international recognition.

Rico was born in Madrid and received his earliest formal training at the city’s Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where he studied under Jenaro Pérez Villaamil. In 1860, having been awarded a government-sponsored scholarship, Rico moved to Paris to continue his studies.

His landscapes depict the French and Swiss countryside in a fully accomplished Realist style. Toward the end of 1870, due to political and social unrest caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Rico decided to leave France and return to his native Spain.

Rico moved to the southern city of Granada, joining Fortuny and his wife Cecilia, as well as the painter Ricardo de Madrazo. The three artists worked closely during this period, with the styles of Rico and Fortuny overlapping so much that their watercolors—a specialty for both artists—were often confused for one another. It was during this time that, through Fortuny’s influence, Rico’s paintings began to reveal a newfound sense of luminosity and color. His time in Andalucía was, according to his memoirs, one of his happiest, and also one of his most artistically productive periods. More on Martín Rico y Ortega

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01 Work of the Canals of Venice, Thomas Moran's Entrance to the Grand Canal, with footnotes. #123

Thomas Moran, 1837 - 1926

Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, 1906

Oil on canvas

14 x 20.25 inches [35.56 x 51.435 cm]

Private collection

Sold for $100,000 USD in Nov 2022

Though Moran spent a great deal of time painting the American frontier, it is his dreamy, jewel-toned depictions of Venice that perhaps best epitomize his intent to imaginatively capture the romantic, picturesque beauty and the unique sensory experience of a locale, rather than depicting reality in topographically accurate detail. More on this painting

Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.

Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group. More on Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran, 1837 - 1926

Detail, Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, 1906

Oil on canvas

14 x 20.25 inches [35.56 x 51.435 cm]

Private collection

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01 Work , The Canals of Venice, Louis Magre's La Salute, with footnotes, #122

Louis Magre

La Salute, c. 2020

Oil on canvas

38 x 46 x 3 cm

Private collection

Santa Maria della Salute (English: Saint Mary of Health), commonly known simply as the Salute, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice, Italy.

It stands on the narrow finger of Punta della Dogana, between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, making the church visible when entering the Piazza San Marco from the water. The Salute is part of the parish of the Gesuati and is the most recent of the so-called plague churches.

In 1630, Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the plague. As a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health (or of Deliverance, Italian: Salute). The church was designed in the then fashionable baroque style by Baldassare Longhena. Construction began in 1631. Most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to the Black Death.

The dome of the Salute was an important addition to the Venice skyline and soon became emblematic of the city, inspiring artists like Canaletto, J. M. W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, and the Venetian artist Francesco Guardi. More on Santa Maria della Salute

Louis Magre was born in Paris in 1955. As a teenager, he studied drawing and architecture, which he gradually gave up to concentrate solely on drawing. He currently lives in Provence, an area which fascinates him and which he loves to admire and paint.

At the beginning of his career, he drew nudes and portraits in charcoal; later, as a fan of impressionist painters including Sisley, Pissaro, Monet and Seurat, he began to paint his local landscapes. Following in the footsteps of Cézanne and Van Gogh, he depicts cloudless skies, green olive trees, blooming flowers and Provencal farmhouses, transporting us into the world of Marcel Pagnol. Particularly contemplative when it comes to landscapes, he has also painted windy beaches in Brittany, flower-covered dunes in Normandy, the streets of Little Italy and the neon signs of Chinatown in New York, where he lived for three years.

His artwork is a journey through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, leaving observers of his work filled with wonder at the sensory experience created by nature. Increasingly, he has focused on choosing materials when creating his artwork to represent the undulating shapes of the countryside which he loves so much.

Since 2007, he has exhibited his work at the Arts and Regards gallery in Pessac, Gironde, Les Baux-de-Provence, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and many other galleries in France. More on Louis Magre

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