Help us preserve an extraordinary Venetian masterpiece!

Gondolas on the Lagoon

The painting is regarded as one of the masterpieces of the vedutismo (a genre of landscape painting) of Francesco Guardi, able to represent the emotion of an instant of light in the peace of the lagoon. In a suspended and almost magical atmosphere, some gondolas sail on the calm water, while in the distance, in the rosy light of sunset, is visible a stretch of the Venetian estuary. The view is painted using a narrow range of colours, where grays and blues predominate.
Water and sky seem to merge, barely separated by the buildings, walls, and bell towers on the horizon. The precise identification of the place, perhaps one of the extreme offshoots of Murano, remains uncertain, here rendered in a way entirely new in the Venetian painter’ repertoire.
For the balance of the composition, making it unique, some scholars have suggested that the work might be the fragment of a larger painting: the curvilinear weave of the canvas along the lower edge and along the left edge rules out the possibility that the canvas was reduced in size on these two sides, but it is possible that it was instead cut along the other two edges. Historians agree in considering this work, dated to around 1765, an anticipation of the development of landscape painting in the 19th century.

The frame is not original because it was damaged during World War II in an effort to save the artwork.

Since it is a great masterpiece, it requires an original 18th-century frame, which has been found on the art market at an antique dealer’s.

Our dream would be to purchase it and give this extraordinary masterpiece the recognition it deserves.

Thank you for helping to preserve this extraordinary Venetian masterpiece!

Your name will be included in the artwork’s caption for as long as it exists, in recognition of your generous contribution!