Guglielmo Ciardi
A Sailing Boat on the Canale della Giudecca
Oil on canvas. 18.5 x 45 cm.
Signed and dated lower left: G. Ciardi./Venezia1881.
Born in Venice to an official of the Austrian government, Ciardi enrolled in 1861 at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts. He later travelled through Italy, to Florence, Rome and Naples, coming into contact with the Macchiaioli and the artists of Resina School who deeply influenced his artistic development.
The present work is typical of his 1870s and 1880s output when the painter, returning to Venice, discovered a new dimension of the city and started depicting the lagoon, placing Venice as a distant background. From this point, the artist began depicting the same subject several times, adding or subtracting small details or changing the lighting in a way that almost recalled the experiments of contemporary Impressionist painters.
The boats, in the center of the composition, almost set the confines between the different areas of the sky, the sea and the shore. Their dark profiles are set in the summer atmosphere with their bright sails, creating a sharp colour contrast influenced by the Macchiaioli.
An acclaimed artist during his lifetime, Ciardi participated regularly in exhibitions in Venice, as well as in Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence, Naples and San Francisco.
Literature
N. Stringa, Guglielmo Ciardi. Catalogo generale dei dipinti, Treviso 2007, p. 217, cat. p.115. - A. Francini, Guglielmo Ciardi /(1842-1917) in “Dedalo”, giugno, anno XI fasc. XIII, 1931, cat. p. 946.