Inscribed at lower left, in pen and light brown ink, "Parte della Piazzetta e punta di S. Giorgio Maggiore".
Not in Fairfax Murray catalog.
Francesco Guardi emerged from the shadow of his brother Giovanni Antonio only after the death of the older artist in 1760. In the decades that followed, Francesco applied the loose brushwork that had become a trademark of the Guardi studio to topographical and imaginary views that took as their starting point the work of Canaletto. Here a ballad singer stands in the Piazzetta di San Marco; in the background is Jacopo Sansovino's Libreria. The abbreviated penwork is typical of the artist, as is the shorthand notation used to describe the animated figures. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.