1943.313: The Grand Canal, Venice

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1943.313

People

John Singer Sargent, American (Florence, Italy 1856 - 1925 London, England)

Title

The Grand Canal, Venice

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1902

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/307927

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Transparent and opaque watercolor and graphite on white wove paper

Dimensions

24.8 × 35.2 cm (9 3/4 × 13 7/8 in.)
mat: 45.4 × 54.6 cm (17 7/8 × 21 1/2 in.)
frame: 49.1 × 58.3 × 2.1 cm (19 5/16 × 22 15/16 × 13/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: brown ink, l.r.: John Singer Sargent
• label: back of frame, paper: Cette Aquarelle est la propriété de Mr. Leon Delafosse, G. Barthole le 15 Mai, 1932. G.B.
  
• inscription: l.r., brown ink, signed, in artist's hand: à Léon Delafosse en toute admiration et amitié, John S. Sargent
• inscription: verso, graphite: [encircled:] 4330

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Gift of the artist to Leon Delafosse, c 1902 (?); sold, presumably by Delafosse, at Sotheby's, London, June 14, 1939, lot 52; purchased by "Lion"; Grenville L. Winthrop, New York; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.313

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• John Singer Sargent, His Own Work, exh. cat., Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc. (New York, NY, 1980), in checklist, unpaginated
• Susan E. Strickler, ed., American Traditions in Watercolor: The Worcester Art Museum Collection, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum/Abbeville Press (New York, 1987), p. 126, note 4
• Margaretta M. Lovell, A Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists, 1860-1915, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL and London, England, 1989), pp. 65-66, fig. 75
• Carl Little, The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA, 1998), repr. in color pp. 34-35
• Edward Katz, ed., The Asheville Reader, Pegasus Press (Asheville, NC, 1999), repr. in color on cover
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 2002), p. 106, under no. 322
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 320, cat. no. 339, reproduced in color, p. 321
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), ill. p. 190
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Venetian Figures and Landscapes, 1898-1913, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2009), no. 1044, repr., p. 235
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2010), p. 282
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2012), p. 98 (note 6)
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1908-1913, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2014), p. 103 n. 6
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), pp. 53-54, 86, repr. as fig. 2 on p. 53, pl. 17 on p. 86
• Penley Knipe and Miriam Stewart, Material Matters (A Watercolor Treasury, Support, Reserve, Opacity, Intervention, Resist, Impermanence), American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, ed. Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2023), Pages 40-67, Figure 2, Page 53

Exhibition History

• American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950, at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/2006 - 06/25/2006
• American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2023 - 08/13/2023

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