01 Painting of the Canals of Venice by the artists of their time, with foot notes. #43

Federico del Campo, 1837 - 1923, PERUVIAN

LA CHIESA GESUATI FROM THE CANALE DELLA GIUDECCA, VENICE, c. 1887

Oil on canvas

15½ by 26 in., 39.5 by 66 cm

Private collection

This painting captures the Zattere, meaning raft, built as a dock in the early sixteenth century to accommodate the delivery of timber for ships and buildings. Painted in 1884, the present work could be perceived as del Campo's tribute to Venice's grand history of trade. Red-coated gondoliers, waiting for their next passenger, crowd in front of the Renaissance façade of the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione. At the center of this composition, bright yellow cargo is off-loaded from the sea-going two-masted brig to the smaller peàta, a cargo boat built specifically to transport goods through Venice’s rios. The brightly-colored sails of flat-bottomed bragozzo flutter as they carry goods across the calm waters of the canal to the island of Giudecca. This bustling view would have been among the first of La Serenissima for many visitors as traghetto and vaporetto launches from the Venice train station made their first landing on the Zattere just beyond Chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario, more commonly referred to as I Gesuati. More on this painting

Federico del Campo, 1837 - 1923, PERUVIAN

Detail, LA CHIESA GESUATI FROM THE CANALE DELLA GIUDECCA, VENICE, c. 1887

Oil on canvas

15½ by 26 in., 39.5 by 66 cm

Private collection

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

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

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