(Albano 1843–1931 Venice)
Concertino, watercolour and tempera on cardboard, 15 x 22.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Italy.

Exhibited:
Vittorio Veneto, Galleria Civica, “Vittorio Emanuele II”, Nello studio di un Maestro dal vero: bozzetti inediti di Eugenio de Blaas, 24 June - 24 September 2017.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Antonella Bellin, exhibition catalogue, Venezia e l’entroterra Veneto dell’Ottocento. Racconti di luce, colore e sentimento, da Luigi da Rios ad Alessandro Milesi, Nello studio di un Maestro dal vero: bozzetti inediti di Eugenio de Blaas, ZeL ed., 2017.

At the end of the 1880s, Eugen von Blaas moved to Venice, where his artistic activity reached its zenith. He spent his time creating delightful genre scenes set among the calli and canals of Venice, featuring beautiful local women chattering away with each other.
Some studies have typical Venetian situations and characters as their subjects, immortalised while interacting with each other around a well in a campiello, sitting or leaning on the wall of a cloister or while walking through the fields. Only one of these studies features characters dressed in period costume as they while away their time in a villa’s grounds.
These sketches were the basis of important oil paintings, now held in private collections, that were exhibited in the most significant galleries in London. In fact, the scenes of everyday life that combine the evocative corners of Venice with the characters typical of these places, were a huge success in the halls of the Royal Academy and the galleries of famous London art dealers.
The portrait of Mrs Lebreton Antonini, an exceptional canvas by the same artist that was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1909, will be offered at auction from another collection, along with these sketches.