Venice, Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge - Giovanni Grubas (Venice 1830 -1919)

Venice, Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge.
Giovanni Grubas (Venice, 1830 - Pula, 1919),

Oil painting on canvas
Canvas 100 x 75 frame 113 x 88
Signed lower left
Excellent condition with old relining and 19th century frame.

Splendid painting on canvas depicting a magnificent view of Venice with one of the symbolic monuments of the city.

The protagonist of the painting is in fact the Rialto Bridge which crosses the waters of the Grand Canal flanked by the elegant silhouette of the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi.

It is an autographed work of the famous 19th century Venetian landscape painter Giovanni Grubas, who together with his father Carlo distinguished himself for the creation of representations of Venice that were always of an excellent standard and in great demand on the Italian and above all foreign markets.

His "Postcards", almost always small in size and therefore easy to market, were aimed with great success at wealthy foreign tourists who wanted a souvenir of their vacation in Venice.

It is no coincidence that the small Venetian views of the Grubas father and son appear more frequently in the catalogs of English and American auctions even more than the Italian ones.

Giovanni Grubas (Venice, 1830 - Pula, 1919), son of Carlo Grubas (1801-1870), was initiated by his father into painting. He immediately specialized, just like his father, in eighteenth-century Venetian perspective views.

In the first part of his career, Giovanni Grubas can certainly be assimilated to his father's pictorial method, but around 1860, influenced by the realist instances of Italian painting, he ventures into a looser and more contemporary style.

Giovanni's works are sometimes confused with those of his father, even if they are often permeated by a decidedly superior atmospheric sensitivity.

We know very little about his life, even less than that of his father. What is certain is that during his career he achieved great success in the Venetian and European market. At the beginning of the 20th century, having gone blind, he finds himself dealing with artistic isolation and difficult economic conditions.

It is said that, bordering on poverty, Giovanni Grubacs managed to live the last years of his life with dignity, selling a box full of paintings that had remained in his Venetian studio during his years of success. Now almost ninety years old and out of any artistic activity, he died in Venice in 1919

The Venetian views of Giovanni Grubas differ from those of his father for a greater sensitivity in the luministic and atmospheric rendering. Although the first views are very similar to those of Carlo, over the years his painting takes on a personal connotation and is totally different from that of his father.

Through a fast and full brushstroke, Grubacs creates views of an atypical Venice, involved in the great artistic evolutions of the time and in the need to give a personal touch to his long career.

This extraordinary large work on canvas is part of the master's youthful creations, considered the most valid and stylistically the most convincing of his production.

The considerable size of the painting makes it particularly rare and sought after, as well as having a great effect on the wall.

In fact, the difficulty in finding important works by the Grubas father and son should be underlined, compared to the more common small-scale creations of a purely commercial nature.

The Young Grubas, still far from the vortex of business, can freely express his artistic talents in this fantastic composition which stands out for an intense light and an enthralling play of light and shadow of extraordinary effectiveness in the rendering of the volumes.