The Doge's Palace, Venice

Richard Parkes Bonington (British, 1802–1828)

1826

Medium
oil on millboard
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Framed: 53.5 x 61 x 6 cm (21 1/16 x 24 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 35.5 x 42.7 cm (14 x 16 13/16 in.)
Culture
England, 19th century
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line
John L. Severance Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

At the age of 22, Bonington achieved overnight success at the official (state sponsored) Paris exhibition known as Salon. Two years later, in 1826, he journeyed to Venice, a city that had long attracted landscape artists. At first, constant rain greatly depressed Bonington, but suddenly the weather changed and Venice was at its glorious best. Bonington frequently painted outdoors, capturing immediate impressions of Venetian architecture and sunlight. He made this particular study from a boat anchored in the lagoon near the Doge's Palace. The thick swirls of paint, with colors mixed together while still wet, indicates how rapidly the artist worked.