Lot 1536 Dα

Nerly moved to Venice from Rome in 1837, changing his motifs to correspond with his new surroundings. He henceforth dedicated himself to depicting Venetian vedutes, a genre whose history reached back to the 18th century. “Römische Tage - Venezianische Nächte” (Roman Days - Venetian Nights) was the title of the exhibition held on occasion of the artist's 200th birthday in Dessau, Lübeck and Paderborn in 2007/2008. Nerly's works do not all depict the city by night, but these moonlit scenes are those most deeply ingrained in popular perception of his art.
The present work shows that Nerly was also a master of depicting the city in day light. Its roofs, balconies, and barges are shown dusted with a light powdering of snow, awakening from the chill crystalline air of the night to the warm rays of morning. The first views of Venice in the snow are thought to have been painted by Nerly's contemporary Ippolito Caffi (1809-1866), whose works are less detailed and more impressionist in style than those of his German colleague.
In this work we see just how closely Nerly attended to minute details and changes to the city's architecture, and they give at least a “post quem” opportunity for dating the piece. We know of a similar view of the canal and the Salute from 1828/39 (now kept in the Kunsthalle Bremen, op. cit., no. 25) seen from the right bank before the Accademia. This depicts a plain building to the left of the Palazzo Francetti (now the Istituto Veneto), which is known to have been demolished in 1847, when the former owner Henry de Chambord wished to use the space for a garden. This garden, which still stands today, is visible in the far left of the present work.
It is also interesting to note how the artist changed the position from which he painted this view in comparison to the earlier work. This version clearly depicts the view from the middle of the Accademia bridge, which was opened in 1854, as opposed to the right bank of the canal. This comparatively late work once again shows Nerly's talent for capturing the magical atmosphere of Venice even after the fall of the once mighty Serenissima and at the dawn of the founding of Italy.