A Canal, Venice (1800–1870): Art, History and Details

A Canal, Venice (1800–1870) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is James Holland (British, 1800–1870).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Venice was one of the primary subjects of the British artist James Holland, and his works satisfied the 19th-century popular imagination of a romantic Venice, with its sun-kissed buildings, gondolas, and quaint bridges. The present sheet was executed during a trip to Venice in 1857. Holland worked on a buff-colored sheet of paper, sketching the composition in graphite, and then painting with watercolor in rust, pink, grey, and aqua, and light blue and white opaque watercolors. The unfinished section on the side of the palazzo at upper left suggests that this drawing was kept by Holland in his studio for his own reference or pleasure.

Object facts

• Title: A Canal, Venice
• Date: 1800–1870
• Creator attribution: James Holland (British, 1800–1870)
• Culture: England
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite and watercolor, heightened with white on buff paper
• Dimensions: Image: 43.1 x 29.7 cm (16 15/16 x 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 43.1 x 29.7 cm (16 15/16 x 11 11/16 in.); Primary mount: 47.2 x 33.8 cm (18 9/16 x 13 5/16 in.); Secondary mount: 49.7 x 36.4 cm (19 9/16 x 14 5/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2021.109

A detail from the museum

Opaque watercolor, also called gouache, or bodycolor, is watercolor paint made opaque with the addition of chalk, white pigment, or white paint.

Collection credit

Gift of Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd in honor of the Swetland family

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.