1712 -1793 · Venice of Settecento, atmospheric veduta and capriccio

Vibrant touches, changing skies, dissolved architecture and rapid silhouettes make Francesco Guardi the most atmospheric poet of 18th-century Venice.

Francesco Guardi was born in Venice in 1712 into a family of painters from Trentino. He first worked in the family workshop with his older brother Gian Antonio. The first works, religious, historical or composed of small figures, remained difficult to distribute among the members of this collective workshop. After the death of Gian Antonio in 1760, Francesco fully affirmed his vocation as a painter of views. Venice then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then had an international market stimulated by Grand Tour travelers. Guardi then took up certain points of view made famous by Canaletto - the Grand Canal, the Rialto, the Dogana, the squares and churches - but profoundly modified the experience. There perspective remains recognizable, while the quick touch makes stones, water, clouds and silhouettes vibrate. The facades dissolve in the air, the sky changes from one moment to the next and the characters become nervous accents. His views are therefore not simple topographical surveys: they reflect the mobile perception of a fragile city. Guardi also paints official festivals, notably those linked to the visit of Grand Duke Paul of Russia, and numerous capricci where ruins, lagoons, arcades and imaginary architecture combine freely. In View of the Rialto and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, the real city remains readable but the light and the movement of the water dominate the monument. At the end of his career, his material became even freer, almost pre-romantic. Died in Venice in 1793, Guardi closed with extraordinary sensitivity the great age of the Venetian veduta. The "Francesco Guardi" selection notably compares View of the Rialto and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana. His reading favors drawing.

Guardi doesn't just measure Venice: he captures its air, water and instability, to the point of making architecture tremble in the light.