Francesco Guardi

Hinged to 18th Century mount, decorated with lines and a band of brown wash at the upper margin. Tiny foxing and surface dirt, staining more evident at the outer margins. Overall medium remains fresh and vibrant both recto and verso and the sheet and mount are in fairly good condition. Sold in a modern, Venetian style, gilded frame.
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This and the following lot are very rare examples of Francesco Guardi's designs for ornamental decorations.  We know of no other studies representing trophies such as the present two lots, this one being double-sided.  It is generally accepted that Francesco started his career in the bottega of his brother, Giovanni Antonio Guardi, who was fourteen years his senior and at the head of the family's workshop.  It is interesting to note that the same subject is treated three t.mes s by Giovanni Antonio on the verso of a drawing in the Correr Museum,¹ and in a painting in the Cini collects ion.²  The Cini canvas, with a figure of Vulcan flanked by similar elaborate trophies, is part of a decoration executed for Palazzo Suppiei, Venice.  According to Morassi the attribution of the painted cycle in Palazzo Suppiei has been debated by scholars between Giovanni Antonio and Francesco, but he attributes it solely to Giovanni Antonio and dates it after 1750, excluding any collaboration with his younger brother.  

Both these accomplished and elegant studies must relate to the early career of Francesco, and they are drawn on the same type of paper, lot 105 bearing the typical Venetian three crescent moon watermark, similar to the one found also in the drawing in the Correr mentioned above.  The verso of the latter includes several studies, as well as the trophies, including a sketch for a figure of St. Vincent Ferrer which Morassi attributes to Francesco and correctly relates to a painting of the same subject by Francesco, datable to 1770-80, now in a private collects ion.³

 It is most probable, considering the style of these two sheets, that they were executed at an early stage when Francesco was in the workshop of Giovanni Antonio.

1.   A. Morassi, Guardi, Tutti i Disegni..., Venice 1975, verso p. 90, no. 60, reproduced fig. 56

2.  Idem., Guardi, I Dipinti, Venice 1993, vol. I, p. 323, no. 77, reproduced vol. II, fig. 92

3.  Ibid., vol. I, no. 205, reproduced vol. II, fig. 223