Venice

Date1835-1845

DimensionsSight: 13 × 17 3/4 in. (33 × 45.1 cm)

Object numberN0285.1961

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextVenice has attracted American tourists and artists since the mid-nineteenth century. The fascination with the floating city and its noteriety made its way back to the United States with the returning tourists and through etchings and illustrations of the city's famous landmarks such as the bridge seen in this work. Schlaors presume this work was done by a school girl perhaps from a copy of an illustration of the Rialto Bridge, one of the more widely known landmarks of Venice. A curious inclusion in this piece is the clothing worn by the gondoliers and boaters, classic attire worn by New Englanders, this inclusion makes scholars believe that the artist never themselves went to Venice, but perhaps saw a souvenier illustration or etching and became inspired to make their own rendition. The bridge still stands today and attracts tourists from all across the world.
Exhibition History“Folk Art from Cooperstown,” Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, March 29, 1966 – June 5, 1966.

“American Painting and Sculpture,” Museum of Early American Folk Art, New York, NY, October 19, 1966 – November 20, 1966.

“The Flowering of American Folk Art,” M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, June 24, 1974 – September 15, 1974; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, April 22, 1974 – June 2, 1974; The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY, February 1, 1974 – March 24, 1974.

“Venice: The American View, 1860-1920,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, October 20, 1984 – January 30, 1985.

“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
BibliographyLouis C. Jones and Agnes Halsey, New-Found Folk Art of the Young Republic (exh. cat., Cooperstown, NY, NYSHA, 1960), p. 16.

On View

Not on view