European Art & Old Masters: 500 Years

Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom.

NOTE:

Born in Lima, Peru, Federico del Campo studied at the Real Academia de Bella Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, establishing a friendship with fellow painter Lorenzo Valles (1830-1910). As with his contemporaries Franz Unterberger (1838-1902), Martin Rico y Ortega (1833-1908) and Antonietta Brandeis (1848-1926), del Campo is best known for his luminous views of Venice, in which architecturally accurate buildings, shimmering canals and gondolas are rendered with great detail, using short, precise brushstrokes and delicate glazes. In the present paintings, the viewer is invited into the picture plane, his or her eye following the winding canals rendered with single vanishing point perspective, all the while taking note of the blue skies, gondoliers and figures walking along the promenades. A painter of vedute, del Campo masterfully painted, both in vertical and horizontal formats, such locations as the Palazzo Ducale, Santa Maria della Salute, the Doge's Palace, the Ca d'Oro, the Grand Canal and Saint Mark's Square.