Capriccio: A Palace with a Courtyard by the Lagoon
Antonio Canaletto
(Italian, 1697-1768)
Italy, Venice, 18th century
Pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash with brush and black ink, over traces of graphite (?), framing lines in brown and black ink
Support: Cream(1) laid paper
Sheet: 26.9 x 42.1 cm (10 9/16 x 16 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.23
Venice was a major destination for 18th-century aristocrats visiting Europe's cultural sites on the grand tour, and it was fashionable to bring home a Canaletto veduta, or view painting, to commemorate the trip. This drawing exemplifies Canaletto's capricci, architectural fantasies amalgamating buildings, archaeological remains, and other architectural elements into imaginary and often whimsical combinations. The view is animated by the inclusion of peasants in the foreground who go about their daily business and even more so by the effect of sunlight flickering over the city known as La Serenissima, the Most Serene.
Purchased from Obach's by Dr. Guy Bellingham Smith, London (letter from Dr. Smith, cma files); [Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 6 July 1927, no. 9 (repr.)]; [Thomas Agnew and Sons].
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 576 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 147 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 23, pp. 66-67, p. 286
Antonio Canaletto: 1697-1768. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (organizer).
Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 1932-January 11, 1933).
Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).
Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939).
Drawings by Old Italian Masters. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 5, 1940-February 25, 1941).
Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 27, 1941).
The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942).
Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).
Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 26, 1968).
Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).
Venice as City and Theater. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-April 21, 1985).
Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
{{cite web|title=Capriccio: A Palace with a Courtyard by the Lagoon|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1930.23|author=Antonio Canaletto|year=c. 1750-1755|access-date=15 July 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
DR - Italian
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund