Louis Pessard, (1774–1855) and his wife Maria Domenica Anna Erba (1793–1876); By descent to his son, Hector Albert Louis Pessard (1815–1890);

By descent to his son, Hector Louis François Pessard (1836–1895);

By descent to his son, Roger André Pessard (1873–1961);

By inheritance to his widow, Charlotte Françoise Léonie Hilaire (1896–1961);

By inheritance to her brother, Léon François Hilaire (1906–1978);

By descent to the current owners in 1978.

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is raised in some areas but secure. There are visible stretcher marks. Under u-v light minor restored loss can be detected in the centre of the composition above the hill fort , to the centre of the left hand edge, to the lower left hand corner and edge, to the right hand corner and below the fortified wall in the sea, centre right. Some of the more delicate shadows have been strengthened but most of the fine details to the houses and boats are well preserved. The paint texture is in good condition and the saturated colours retain their vibrancy.
"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 newly-rediscovered view of the Croatian city of Pula is one of only three views of that city by Antonio Joli, surely the best-travelled artist of the eighteenth century. The painting has belonged to the same family for seven generations and once hung on the walls of Hector Louis François Pessard (fig. 1), the French intellectual and journalist who counted Victor Hugo and Emile Zola among his friends. In the family inventory of 1879 the work is listed as a view of Arles, the French coastal town which also boasts a Roman amphitheatre. Born in Modena, Joli would spend most of his life travelling around Italy and further afield to Germany, Spain, Croatia and to England, where he would gain a fine reputation as a set-designer and vedutista. As a young man he travelled to Rome, where he studied the vedute and capricci of Giovanni Paolo Panini, under whom he almost certainly trained, and of Gaspar van Wittel. By 1718 he must have established himself in the Città Eterna for he was granted the important commission to decorate the Villa Patrizi in Rome, and by 20 April 1719 he had become a member of the Accademia di San Luca. He is first documented in Venice in the Spring of 1732 and here, once again, he would study and assimilate the style of the leading vedutisti, namely Canaletto, Marieschi and Carlevarijs.

The city of Pula on the Istrian peninsula, is immediately recognisable by its spectacularly well preserved Roman amphitheatre, built between 27 BC and 68 AD. The artist's two other known views of Pula are that formerly in the collection of the Earls of Winchelsea and Nottingham, sold in these Rooms, 9 December 1987, and that in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.¹

Following first-hand inspection, the attribution has been endorsed by Charles Beddington, to whom we are grateful.

1 See R. Toledano, Antonio Joli, Turin 2006, pp. 264–65, cat. nos V.V.III.1 and 2 respectively, both reproduced.