John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Ponte della Canonica, 1903-1907
Watercolor on paper, 45.8 x 30.6 cm (18 1/16 x 12 1/16 in.)
This horizontal, rectangular watercolor on painting is set in Venice and is painted from the perspective of someone sitting in a gondola on the canal. The pale yellow, tan, blue and green canal flows under an arched bridge. The white bridge with a stone railing gracefully crosses the canal. To our left is an indistinct building that rises directly next to the canal with a dark brown overhang above. A large dark brown gondola appears with its bow facing the viewer. Beyond the bridge are pale pinkish and off-white buildings. The very pale blue and yellow sky is above. The artist’s signature and an inscription appear in the upper left corner.
Blue Room
Commentary
Sargent and Isabella Stewart Gardner shared a lifelong love of Venice. Both visited the city repeatedly and knew it well. This view, as many others, was painted by Sargent from a gondola. Perhaps looking at this picture, Gardner remembered one of her own gondola rides on Venice's canals. She purchased it many years after her last visit to the lagoon city.
Source: Oliver Tostmann and Anne-Marie Eze, The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection, exhibition on view in the Museum's Fenway Gallery, October 31, 2013–January 20, 2014.
Source: Oliver Tostmann and Anne-Marie Eze, The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection, exhibition on view in the Museum's Fenway Gallery, October 31, 2013–January 20, 2014.