Hercules Brabazon Brabazon

Watercolour

17 x 24.6 cm.; 6 33/4 x 9 ¾ inches

Provenance
Pietro Raffo until 2022

£3200

Brabazon greatly admired the work of J.M.W.Turner. This is a copy after a watercolour in the Turner Bequest (D32168 TB CCCXVI 31). It is thought to show shipping moored off the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore or the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, done in 1840. Ian Warrell has suggested that it is part of a group which probably derived from Canaletto’s Bacino compositions (I. Warrell, Turner and Venice, 2003, p. 47). https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-shipping-moored-off-the-isola-di-san-giorgio-maggiore-or-the-r1196999

Brabazon captures the spirit of Turner’s watercolour rather successfully. Given that Turner was influenced in turn by Canaletto, this watercolour attests to the hold which Venice has had over artists through the ages.