Portrait of Francesco Guardi

Francesco Guardi Painting Reproductions 1 of 5

1712-1793

Italian Rococo Painter

Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (October 5, 1712 - January 1, 1793) was a Venetian painter of veduta. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of painting.

Francesco Guardi was born in Venice into a family of lesser nobility from Trentino. His father Domenico (born in 1678) and his brothers Niccolo and Gian Antonio were also painters, the latter inheriting the family workshop after the father's death in 1716. They probably all contributed as a team to some of the larger commissions later attributed to Francesco. His sister Maria Cecilia married the pre-eminent Veneto-European painter of his epoch, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

In 1735, Francesco moved to the workshop of Michele Marieschi, where he remained until 1743. His first certain works is from 1738, for a parish at Vigo d'Anuania, in Trentino. In this period he worked alongside his better-known brother, Gian Antonio. The first work signed by Francesco is a Saint Adoring the Eucarist (circa 1739).

His works in this period included landscapes as well as figure representations. His early vedutas show influence both from Canaletto and Luca Carlevarijs. On February 15, 1757 he married Maria Mathea Pagani, the daughter of painter Matteo Pagani. In the same year his brother Gian Antonio died and his first son, Vincenzo, was born. His second son, Giacomo, was born in 1764.

In 1763 he worked in Murano, in the church of San Pietro Martire, finishing a Miracle of a Dominican Saint clearly influenced by Alessandro Magnasco in its quasi-expressionistic style.

Francesco Guardi's most important later works include the Doge's Feasts, a series of twelve canvases celebrating the ceremonies held in 1763 for the election of Doge Alvise IV Mocenigo. In his later years, Canaletto's influence on his art diminished, as showed by the Piazzetta in the Ca' d'Oro of Venice. In circa 1778, he painted the severe Holy Trinity Appearing to Sts. Peter and Paul in the parish church of Roncegno.

In 1782 Guardi was commissioned by the Venetian government six canvases to celebrate the visit of the Russian Archdukes in the city, of which only two remain, and two others for that of Pope Pius VI. On September 12 of that year he was admitted to the Fine Art Academy of Venice.

A stronger attention to colours is present in late works such as the Concerto of 80 Orphans of 1782, now in Munich, in the Facade of Palace with Staircase in the Accademia Carrara of Bergamo.

Guardi died at Venice in 1793.

Guardi's painterly style is known as "pittura di tocco" (of touch) for its small dotting and spirited brush-strokes. In this he differs from the more solid, meticulously etched, and architecturally accurate style of Canaletto's painting. This looser style of painting also had been used by Giovanni Piazzetta and Sebastiano Ricci. The religious paintings of Guardi also have some of sweetened sfumato of Barocci's Bolognese style. In this he differs from the more solid, meticulously etched, and architecturally accurate style of Canaletto's painting. This style, centuries later, would make Guardi's works highly prized by the French Impressionists.

Canaletto appears to have concentrated on meticulously depicting the urban architecture of the imperial republic; on the other hand, in Guardi, the buildings often appear to be melting and sinking into a murky lagoon. Canaletto's canvases often have intricate linear and brilliant details of urban structures, and depict Venice in sunny daylight. Guardi's skies are clouded and the time is dusk. These contrasts, however, simplify the facts, since Canaletto often painted the drab communal life and neighborhoods (creating in them some epic artistic qualities), while Guardi did not avoid painting some of the now-empty ceremonies of Ducal Venice. Ultimately, Guardi's paintings evoke the onset of the dissipation. The citizenry has shrunken to an impotent lilliputian crowd of "rubber-neckers", unable to rescue the crumbling Republic, as for example in the Fire in the Oil Depot in San Marcuola. It was fitting depiction of the rapidly declining empire, which had declined, in Napoleon's assessment, into a "drawing room of Europe" peopled with casinos, carnivals, and courtesans for hire.

106 Francesco Guardi Paintings

Santa Maria della Salute and The Old Customs House, c.1785 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Santa Maria della Salute and The Old Customs House c.1785

Oil Painting
$1053
Canvas Print
$56.05
SKU: GUF-590
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 48.3 x 66 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

Gondola on the Lagoon, c.1793 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Gondola on the Lagoon c.1793

Oil Painting
$582
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-591
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 31 x 41.8 cm
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy

Rio dei Mendicanti, c.1793 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Rio dei Mendicanti c.1793

Oil Painting
$349
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-592
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 19 x 15 cm
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy

Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore with the Giudecca and the Zitelle, c.1760/76 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore with the Giudecca ... c.1760/76

Oil Painting
$1580
Canvas Print
$57.98
SKU: GUF-593
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 68.5 x 91.5 cm
The Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom

Venice: The Dogana with the Giudecca, c.1760/76 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Venice: The Dogana with the Giudecca c.1760/76

Oil Painting
$1609
Canvas Print
$57.43
SKU: GUF-594
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 68.2 x 91.3 cm
The Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom

Venice: Canale Grande, c.1777 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Venice: Canale Grande c.1777

Oil Painting
$1002
SKU: GUF-595
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: unknown
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Courtyard in Venice, c.1775/80 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Courtyard in Venice c.1775/80

Oil Painting
$595
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-596
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 38 x 26 cm
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia

Venetian Capriccio: View of a Square and a Palace, c.1775/80 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Venetian Capriccio: View of a Square and a Palace c.1775/80

Oil Painting
$744
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-597
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 27 x 23 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Mark's Square in Venice with the Clocktower, c.1770/75 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

St. Mark's Square in Venice with the Clocktower c.1770/75

Oil Painting
$1446
Canvas Print
$52.17
SKU: GUF-4213
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 62 x 89 cm
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Austria

Sophronia Asking the Saracen King Aladine to Release the Christian Prisoners, c.1760 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Sophronia Asking the Saracen King Aladine to ... c.1760

Oil Painting
$1528
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-7026
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 249 x 110.5 cm
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull City, United Kingdom

The Coronation of the Doge of Venice on the Scala dei Giganti of the Palazzo Ducale, c.1766/70 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Coronation of the Doge of Venice on the Scala ... c.1766/70

Oil Painting
$2423
Canvas Print
$80.49
SKU: GUF-7027
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 67 x 101 cm
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

The Grand Canal, Venice, n.d. by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Grand Canal, Venice n.d.

Oil Painting
$2482
Canvas Print
$70.45
SKU: GUF-7028
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

Alexander the Great before the Corpse of Darius III, n.d. by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Alexander the Great before the Corpse of Darius III n.d.

Oil Painting
$2406
Canvas Print
$56.59
SKU: GUF-7030
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: unknown
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia

The Parlour of the San Zaccaria Convent, n.d. by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Parlour of the San Zaccaria Convent n.d.

Oil Painting
$1709
Canvas Print
$50.50
SKU: GUF-7031
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 108 x 208 cm
Palazzo Ca' Rezzonico, Venice, Italy

The Foyer, n.d. by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Foyer n.d.

Oil Painting
$1583
Canvas Print
$68.46
SKU: GUF-7032
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

Santa Maria della Salute, c.1780 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Santa Maria della Salute c.1780

Oil Painting
$1487
Canvas Print
$65.12
SKU: GUF-7033
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 43.5 x 59.5 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Regatta on the Canale della Guidecca, c.1784/89 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Regatta on the Canale della Guidecca c.1784/89

Oil Painting
$1697
Canvas Print
$82.17
SKU: GUF-7034
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 61 x 93 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Venetian GalaConcert in the Sala dei Filarmonici, 1782 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Venetian GalaConcert in the Sala dei Filarmonici 1782

Oil Painting
$2130
Canvas Print
$94.68
SKU: GUF-7035
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 67.7 x 90.5 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

View of Dolo on the Brenta, c.1774/76 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

View of Dolo on the Brenta c.1774/76

Oil Painting
$1538
Canvas Print
$80.28
SKU: GUF-7036
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 48.2 x 66.2 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, USA

Landscape Capriccio with Figures, n.d. by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Landscape Capriccio with Figures n.d.

Oil Painting
$707
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-7037
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 27.3 x 20.6 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

 View of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, c.1765/75 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

View of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore c.1765/75

Oil Painting
$1290
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-7038
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 43 x 61 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Landscape, c.1780 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

Landscape c.1780

Oil Painting
$1501
Canvas Print
$50.81
SKU: GUF-7039
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 120 x 156 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

The Doge of Venice Goes to Salute on November 21st, Day of the Commemoration of the End of the Plague of 1630, c.1775/80 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Doge of Venice Goes to Salute on November ... c.1775/80

Oil Painting
$3495
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-7040
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 67 x 101 cm
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

The Doge of Venice in the Bucentaur at San Nicolo di Lido on Ascension Day, c.1775/80 by Francesco Guardi | Painting Reproduction

The Doge of Venice in the Bucentaur at San Nicolo ... c.1775/80

Oil Painting
$3184
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: GUF-7041
Francesco Guardi
Original Size: 67 x 101 cm
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

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