Figure Studies

Francesco Guardi

ca. 1765–70 · Pen and brown ink, light and dark brown and grayish brown wash · Robert Lehman Collection

This brown and gray wash study of figures clustered alongside a colonnade may have been preliminary to one of Guardi’s paintings of ceremonies celebrating the election of a Doge. It is generally recognized that these ceremonial pictures owe inspiration to the ubiquitous prints engraved by Giambattista Brustolon after Canaletto (Feste Dogali [Ducal Ceremonies and Festival] 1766).

Artist

Francesco Guardi

Date

ca. 1765–70

Medium

Pen and brown ink, light and dark brown and grayish brown wash

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975