Foscari Palace with view of Grand Canal

Victor Jean Nicolle's relatively small corpus includes many drawings with views of Italy and Rome. He spent two extended periods of time in Italy, from 1787 to 1798 and again from 1806-1811. This drawing was certainly made during one of these Italian periods, and it is close in style and composition to a second sheet by Nicolle from the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection (inv. 2009.223). Both drawings appear to be part of the same series; they are predominantly executed in pen and brown ink, with an atmospheric application of brown wash, featuring a Venetian landscape in a roundel format. This drawing presents a view taken from the south of the Palazzo Foscari, or Ca'Foscari. The Byzantine-inspired palazzo was built by the Doge Francesco Foscari on the waterfront of the Grand Canal in 1437, and it was one of the grandest homes in Venice- making it a popular landmark for eighteenth-century artists on their Grand Tour.