Attributed to Giuseppe Schranz

SOLD

KT376

Watercolour over pencil

27.5 x 18.8 cm.; 10 ¾ x 7 3/8 inches

Provenance
Private collection U.K. until 2020

This recently rediscovered view of Strada Saluto (Battery Street) from the second or third floor window of the family studio shows the Porto delle Galere (Gallery Port) in Birga in the distance.

The close-knit Schranz family arrived in Malta in 1818 where, after a spell in their first residence in Floriana, they moved to 6, Strada Sant’Ursola, Valletta. It was here that they painted, received visitors, exhibited works and opened their lithographic establishment. Three views from the same vantage point as the present work, attributed respectively to Anton, Giovanni and Melita Schranz, were included in the recent bicentenary exhibition (see ‘The Schranz family of Artists- a journey of rediscovery’, Fort St Elmo, Valletta 10 March – 17 July 2018, p. 25, ill.)

We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for the suggestion that this drawing may be by Giuseppe Schranz, the most renowned painter of the family, who spent much of his working life in Constantinople.