Manner of Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768) View of the lower...

Manner of Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768)
View of the lower middle reaches of the Grand Canal facing the Rialto bridge, Venice
Oil on canvas, 45.5cm by 72cm

Provenance: Henry Blank collection thence by decent, originally purchased from Pierre Bezine collection, May 8th, 1929, Galerie Fievez, Brussels

With Christie's stencil 400EJ verso

Mr Henry Blank (1872-1949) is notable as a survivor of RMS Titanic April 14th/15th 1912

. Old re-line. Small patch of over painting to lower left hand corner approx. 0.5cm by 1cm in length running in vertical arrangement. Further patch of re-touching in the sky above the apex of far right building approx. 1cm by 3cm running vertically. This has deteriorated and has a textured quality to it by eye. Small cluster of tiny areas of infilling above and around the Gondolas and buildings just right of centre and further possible odd tiny retouches within the sky. There is a vertical and two horizontal linear potential repair with associated retouching just above the skyline centre. The vertical line being approx 2.5cm in length with one horizontal line running from bottom and left approx. 4cm in length with a smaller horizontal line of discoloured retouching approx 0.5cm beneath this and 1cm in length. Covered in a thick layer of dirt and discoloured varnish. The varnish above the buildings on the far right hand side has indications of finger prints as it has discoloured. Small push mark which does not perforate the canvas left of centre approx. 3cm above the buildings and no more than 0.5cm in size. There is a slightly incongruous lighter patch of paint with a possible horizontal retouch above it right of centre approx 1cm above the buildings and 2-3cm in length. Some minor rubbing to edges. Otherwise in an overall good and stable state of preservation.