(Venice 1824–1890)
A noctural view of Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice with the West End of the Church and the Scuola di San Marco under snow,
signed and dated lower right: L Que...na 1850,
oil on canvas, 50.1 x 74.4 cm, framed

We are grateful to Fabrizio Magani for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

The present work is a significant example of the changing evolution of Venetian view painting. The composition relates to an engraving by Michele Marieschi in Magnificentiores selectioresque Urbis Venetiorum prospectu published in Venice in 1741 (the second state of this engraving bears the number 15, in the first state the plates were loose), as well as a composition by Canaletto which is conserved in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (see W.G. Constable, revised by J. G. Links, Canaletto, Oxford 1989, no. 307). However the present composition is a nocturnal scene and the inclusion of snow lit by a gas lamp is highly evocative and innovative. The depiction of Venice in deep winter relates to other view painting by Ippolito Caffi; and the depiction of Venice at night was introduced by Quarena and also by Friedrich Nerly (1807–1878).

The composition was to have success and another monogrammed version is known in a private collection and will be published shortly by Magani in Il punto di vista di Carlo e Giovanni Grubacs su Venezia (Treviso 2017). A version (tempera on paper, 83 x 124 cm) is conserved in the Museo Correr, Venice (inv. no. 8466/4).