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View of Venice: The Ducal Palace, Dogana and Part of San Giorgio

Artist/Maker (British, 1775–1851)
Date1841
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 25 × 36 5/8 in. (63.5 × 93 cm)
Frame: 34 7/8 × 47 × 5 in. (88.6 × 119.4 × 12.7 cm)
Credit LineMrs. F. F. Prentiss Bequest
Object number1944.54
Status
On view
More Information
J. M. W. Turner's stunning View of Venice, one of the most important paintings in the AMAM collection, brilliantly captures the mood and atmosphere of a sun-drenched Venetian day. Rising to prominence first as a topographical watercolorist, then as a painter of historical, sublime landscapes, Turner was the most important British landscape painter during the first half of the nineteenth century.

This painting epitomizes Turner's light, airy palette of cadmium yellows, whites, and the occasional touches of deep red. It was made for Turner's friend, the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A., and was first exhibited in 1841 at the Royal Academy in London. Reviews of the 1841 exhibition praise Turner's Venetian pictures for "the clearness of air and water" and as being "a glorious example of colour, leaving, as usual, much to the fancy of the spectator; and absolutely extorting applause." Here the mouth of the Canale della Giudecca-with carefully placed gondolas- dynamically leads toward the horizon, with the Doges' Palace (Palazzo Ducale) and the Riva degli Schiavoni in the center, and the Piazzetta San Marco with the Campanile and the Libreria Sansoviniana to their left. The domed church of San Giorgio Maggiore dominates the right middle ground. Oberlin's painting, brilliantly executed in three layers over white ground, is in excellent condition with impasto and glazes still intact.

Art dealer Joseph Duveen sold the Turner painting to Elisabeth Severance Prentiss in 1925.
Exhibition History
Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London
  • Royal Academy of Arts, London ( 1841 - 1841 )
Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London
  • Royal Academy of Arts, London ( 1889 - 1889 )
Loan Collection of Pictures
  • Guildhall, Corporation of London Art Gallery ( 1894 - 1894 )
Masterpieces of Painting, 1500-1900
  • Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH ( 1950-10 - 1950-11 )
An Exhibition of Paintings by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) to Commemorate the Centennial of his Death
  • Toronto Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada (October 12, 1951 - November 18, 1951 )
Paintings and Drawings from Five Centuries: Collection Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (February 3, 1954 - February 21, 1954 )
Turner in America: oils, water colors, drawings and some engraved works of Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775-1851
  • John Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN (November 12, 1955 - December 25, 1955 )
Notable Paintings from Midwestern Collections
  • Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, NE (November 30, 1956 - January 2, 1957 )
Comparisons
  • Toronto Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada (January 11, 1957 - February 13, 1957 )
The World of Art in 1910
  • Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA (November 15, 1960 - December 31, 1960 )
Significant Forms - The Changing Character of Western Art
  • Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA (July 8, 1961 - October 1, 1961 )
Birth of Impressionism
  • Wildenstein & Company, New York (March 7, 1963 - April 6, 1963 )
Impressionism and its Roots
  • The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA (November 8, 1964 - December 6, 1964 )
Focus on Light
  • New Jersey State Museum, Trenton (May 20, 1967 - September 10, 1967 )
Impressionism: 100 Years
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (December 14, 1974 - January 19, 1975 )
J. M. W. Turner
  • Réunion des museés nationaux - Grand Palais, Paris (October 14, 1983 - January 16, 1984 )
Hommage à Raphaël: Raphaël et L'art Francais
  • Réunion des museés nationaux - Grand Palais, Paris (November 15, 1983 - February 13, 1984 )
Landscapes from the Permanent Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 10, 1986 - May 16, 1986 )
Director's Choice: 19th Century European Paintings and Sculpture
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 9, 1986 - January 4, 1987 )
From Turner to Picasso: Masterworks from the Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 27, 1988 - September 18, 1988 )
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Landscape
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (June 15, 1993 - August 19, 1993 )
Focus on the Permanent Exhibition: Audrey Flack
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 20, 1993 - March 20, 1994 )
The Grand Tour: Representations and Recollections of Italy, 1750-1850
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (October 28, 1997 - January 4, 1998 )
Short-term Loan to Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 3, 1998 - August 17, 1998 )
Seven Hundred Years of Western Art
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Figure to Non-Figurative: The Evolution of Modern Art in Europe and North America, 1830-1950
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 23, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
Turner and Venice
  • Tate Britain, London (October 9, 2003 - January 11, 2004 )
  • Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (February 15, 2004 - May 30, 2004 )
Out of Albion: British Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2008 - December 23, 2008 )
Side by Side: Oberlin's Masterworks
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (March 16, 2010 - August 29, 2010 )
  • The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (September 11, 2010 - January 16, 2011 )
Collections
  • European
  • On View