Berthe Juliette de Rothschild, later Baronne Léonino (1870-1896), Paris (according to Morassi, see Literature);
By descent to Baron Henri De Rothschild (1872-1947);
By descent to James Nathaniel de Rothschild (1896-1987), by whom sold to Wildenstein, New York, in 1955;
With Wildenstein, New York, from whom acquired by a member of the present owner's family in 1960;
Thence by descent.

A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice 1973, vol. I, pp. 251-52 and 430, cat. no. 642, reproduced vol. II, fig. 604;
A. Morassi, Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice 1993, vol. I, pp. 251-52 and 430, cat. no. 642, reproduced vol. II, fig. 604.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has an old, although not original, stretcher, and there is a narrow band of retouching on all sides. The lining is also old and has flattened the surface, leaving some rather crushed patches, for instance in the sky at upper right. The only accidental damage however is a little horizontal succession of small lost flakes, presumably from a knock, at the middle of the right edge running in for about two or three inches. These have been filled and retouched, as has one other little loss in the water below the more distant boats on the left. There is some other fairly widespread superficial retouching mainly in the sky: in the clouds at the centre and slanting up the clouds towards the upper right corner. The sails of the central ship have been reinforced and the top left corner has fairly extensive retouching. This retouching has slightly discoloured, and the restoration generally appears to date from the sixties. The characteristic granular pigments can be seen almost throughout but the delicate films of original glazing in the sky have been lost as has the most fragile detail in the central ship for instance. However the lower part of the painting is in markedly better condition, especially the beautiful group of boats in the centre right foreground, and much of the group at lower left. In general the darks have tended to be more vulnerable particularly in the minute calligraphic details for instance in the rigging and in the architecture, and the bodies of the gondolas are sometimes quite faint, while the white highlights and other flourishes remain strong, but overall much of the lower half of the painting is fairly well preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This exquisitely calm view of a little-visited corner of the Venetian lagoon is a late work by Francesco Guardi. Here Guardi returns to a theme he concentrated on as a young man when painting a series of views, all of broadly similar dimensions to the present work, of the calm backwaters of Venice.¹  Of the numerous views of islands and outposts in the lagoon, many of which are actually by the artist's son Giacomo, Morassi considers this to be a very beautiful example by Francesco himself.  These topographical views, classified by Morassi as 'vedute lagunari', are all characterised, whether youthful or mature, by their modest subject matter and prevailing tranquility, standing in stark contrast to the artist's opulent panoramas of, for example, the Bucintoro in the Bacino di San Marco,² or his busy depictions of regattas on the Grand Canal.

The view is taken from the north-east and looks south-west. The Lido can be seen at the extreme left of the composition, with the church of San Nicolò and its campanile breaking the horizon beyond; to the right stands the Isola le Vignole, dominated by the Forte di Sant' Andrea. In these waters, each year on Ascension day, the Doge (today the mayor) celebrated the annual Sposalizio del Mare (the 'marriage' of V༒enice to the sea), by throwing a golden ring into the water; a token of the Republic's former dominance overꦇ the Adriatic.

The Forte di Sant' Andrea was built in 1543 to a design by Michele Sanmichele, the leading architect in Venice and the man responsible for all defensive constructions in the lagoon. The Forte guarded the main entrance to Venice from the Adriatic, the Porte del Lido; it was from the Forte that the Venetians fired upon the French warship, the Liberateur d'Italie, killing its com꧑mander and, with it, giving Napoleon a pretext for declaring war in May 1797.

Morassi states that this painting once belonged to the Baronne Léonino, Bertha Juliette de Rothschild, daughter of Baron Gustave Samuel de Rothschild (1829-1911), in Paris. Gustave was the son of James (formerly Jacob) Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868) and this may be to whom Morassi refers under provenance as 'J.N. de Rothschild' (J.N. being a possible misprint of J.M.).  The painting cannot be traced in any of the Rothschild archives, nor is it listed in Gustave's inventory of 1911, where no Guardis are mentioned at all.  The painting may have entered the Léonino collection through Bertha's husband, the Baron Emmanuel Léonino (1864-1936), whom she married in 1892, although it is not included in his posthumous sale.³  If the painting did belong to Baronne Léonino it may well have hung in the Château de Montvillargenne, her former residence in Chantilly, just north of Paris.  She owned a number of Old Masters, particularly of the Dutch and Flemish schools, many of which she had inherited from her father; among them Sir Peter Paul Rubens' Portrait of a woman, probably Susanna Lunden (1599-1628) today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Y🐻ork.

1  See, for example, Guardi's View of the lagoon with the Fondamenta Nuove sold in these Rooms, 5 July 2006, lot 15;
2  In the Musée du Louvre, Paris, for which see A. Morassi, under Literature, vol. I, cat. no. 247, reproduced vol. II, fig. 273.
3  The sale was held in Paris, Galeꦰrie Ch𒉰arpentier, 18 March 1937.