45.4 by 72.5 cm.
Further images
Federico del Campo settled in Venice in the 1880s, and became one of the most successful artists to record the daily activity of Venetian life, especially as it took place on the canals.
Catalogue note
The Peruvian painter, Federico del Campo settled in Venice in the 1880s, and became one of the most successful artists to record the daily activity of Venetian life, especially as it took place on the canals. He specialized in scenes showing gondoliers with their “water taxis” as they ferried elegantly dressed passengers in front of well-known monuments.
Venice had been a widely anticipated stop on the Grand Tour since the 18th century, however it was during the 19th century that it became a fashionable center for the glitterati, who frequented its popular cafes and hotels. Our painting is reminiscent and contemporary with the Venice depicted in Henry James’s Wings of the Dove, written in 1902. For those on the Grand Tour, like the young American heiress in this novel, the desire to take a “souvenir” back home resulted in a strong tourist market for painted Venetian scenes (known as “vedute”) and artists like Federico del Campo were ready and able to supply the visual “postcard” as a memento of the magical city.