Fishing Boat in St. Mark’s Basin
Félix ZIEM
(French, 1821-1911)
Fishing Boat in St. Mark’s Basin
Dateafter 1849
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall (sight): 31 7/8 x 45 3/8 in. (81 x 115.3 cm)
frame: 41 1/8 x 54 1/2 in. (104.5 x 138.4 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Gwendolyn Mitchell Hunter
Object number1974.2
Subject(s)
- boat
- ocean
- ocean
- architecture
- buildings
Collection
- 19th century French
On View
Not on viewCollections
Label TextKnown as “The Painter of Venice,” Félix Ziem was one of the most commercially successful artists in 19th-century France. His iridescent, light-saturated paintings of Venice, Istanbul, and the south of France were sought after by collectors, and he became the first living artist to have his work enter the Louvre, an honor previously reserved only for artists after their death. In this view of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Ziem brings together the eighteenth-century tradition of Venetian views by artists such as Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, marketed at well-heeled travelers completing the “Grand Tour” of Europe, with the shimmering light and color of 19th-century Orientalist paintings and J.M.W. Turner’s luminous watercolors of Venice.
