Venice, the Grand Canal with the Doge's Palace

Alternate TitleVenice

Alternate TitleVenetian Grand Canal

Artist Thomas Moran (American, born England, 1837 - 1926)

Date1889

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/4 x 36 1/4 inches (61.6 x 92.08 cm)
Framed: 34 7/8 x 46 7/8 x 4 3/8 inches (88.58 x 119.06 x 11.11 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation

Object numberF88-35

SignedSigned and dated lower left: . 1889.

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionA freely brushed view of the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy. Right foreground: a group of three small boats and a gondola, carrying assorted wares and nine human figures. Diagonal of buildings extends along water's edge from the right center edge of the canvas, back through horizon line where the twin domes of S. Marco can be seen. Left center: edge of a pier, and at center, several small boats with masts afloat on water.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Sixty-fourth Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, April 1–May 11, 1889, no. 183 (as Venice).

Gallery Label

In the late 19th century, Venice was heralded as a refuge from modernity, and Thomas Moran's paintings of the legendary Italian city reinforced this perception. Moran's Venice, the Grand Canal with the Doge's Palace shows famous buildings along the Grand Canal bathed in a romantic, atmospheric glow. Fanciful boats, gondolas and figures dressed in historical costumes contribute exotic details. Moran, who first visited Venice in 1886, created this and related scenes from memory with the aid of studies.

Moran followed a long line of artists who painted Venice, including English painter J. M. W. Turner, whose feathery brushwork and poetic treatment of light exerted great influence on the American.

Provenance

[Thomas D.?] Murphy; F. E. Robinson, Harrodsburg, Ky., and Summit, N.J.;

to (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1970);

to (Trosby, Palm Beach, Fla., 1971);

Elizabeth W. Swanson, Palm Beach, Fla.;

(Christie’s, New York, 3 June 1983, lot 101);

Samuel T.Fee, Oklahoma City, Okla., 1983;

to estate of Samuel T. Fee;

to (Sotheby’s, New York, 1 December 1988, lot 28);

to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., 1988.

Published References

Catalogue of the Sixty-fourth Annual Exhibition, exh. cat. (New York: National Academy of Design, 1889), 20 (as Venice).

Christie’s, New York, June 3, 1983, lot 101 (as Venetian Grand Canal).

Christopher Wright, Catalogue of Old Master Paintings from a Private Collection in the United States (London: Lund Humphries, 1984), 9, 17, 104–5.

Thomas Hoving, “Auction Fever: Twenty-three Masterworks Come on the Market,” Connoisseur 215 (May 1985), 105.

Sotheby’s, New York, December 1, 1988, lot 28.

Donald Hoffmann, “Kemper Foundation Donates Two Works to Nelson,” Kansas City Star, June 25, 1989, 5C.

“American Paintings Enrich Museum Collection,” Calendar of Events (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), Summer 1989, 1–3.

Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 93.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6^th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 239, 244.

Nancy K. Anderson et al., Thomas Moran, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1997), 249 (as Venice).

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 21, 401-03 (repro.), 2: 171-172 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 168 (repro.).

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