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
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visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine
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