Hot Sargent In Venice Summer

a sargent painting of a vast gilded hall in the doge's palace in venice lit from the windows on the right, picking up details of the gold carved ceiling, and the giant globes in the center of the hall
John Singer Sargent, Hall of the Grand Council, Doge’s Palace, Venice, 1898, 20 x 28 in. or so, sold for just GBP 504,000 at Christie’s in 2024

Maybe I need to redo my alerts, because this amazing John Singer Sargent painting of the Doge’s Palace just snuck right by me in the summer of 2024.

Sargent gave it to Ena Wertheimer, a friend and frequent portrait subject, who later sold it to the 6th Earl of Harewood after he got Veronese’s study for the Apotheosis of Venice, the big oval painting on the Grand Council ceiling.

a sargent painting of a large, dark, opulent palazzo interior in venice with an older white bougie boston couple on a sofa in the light in the foreground, the man in a dark suit reading a newspaper and turned toward the lady in a grey gown facing straight ahead and looking probably as old as she was in 1899, on the left, a little behind them but still in the light, a young white guy in summer suit sits against a table and his slight white wife in a going out outfit stands next to him. these are the curtises and mrs curtis rejected this present from their houseguest and cousin, so he gave it to the royal academy instead
John Singer Sargent, An Interior in Venice, 1899, oil on canvas, 23 x 32 7/8 in., collection Royal Academy

But what’s most interesting is how it presages An Interior in Venice, the painting Sargent made the next year while staying with the family of his friend/cousin Ralph Curtis at the Palazzo Barbaro. Sargent really did love a dramatically lit Venetian salone. Mrs. Curtis didn’t like the painting, though, so Sargent submitted it for his diploma at the Royal Academy, who claims copyright on it and its 18th century frame lol.