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

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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