(1877 Paris – Meudon 1957)
View of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
Oil on canvas
53 x 73 cm
Signed et dated at the lower left : GEORGES LEROUX 1909, Also on the reverse of the frame
Exhibition : probably at the Exposition Georges Leroux, Galerie Devambez, 1913, Catalogue n°14: « Eglise de la Salute (Venise) »
It was following his Prix de Rome in 1906, awarded for The Family in Antiquity (now held at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris), that Leroux made his first stay in Rome as a resident, from 1907 to 1909. Dazzled by the light of Italy, the young Parisian would return to the country many times throughout his life, travelling from Veneto to Tuscany, and from Umbria to Naples. In 1913, Leroux sent numerous paintings of Italian landscapes to the renowned Galerie Devambez, located at 43 boulevard Malesherbes, for exhibition. It is likely that the present painting was shown there—listed as no. 14 in the catalogue—between 8 and 22 January 1913.
This esteemed institution, located in the heart of elegant early 20th-century Paris, was initially specialised in printmaking before going on to exhibit artists of classical modernity such as Leroux, as well as leading figures of the Avant-garde including Picasso, Matisse, and de Chirico. The journalist and critic Henry Bérenger referred to the 70 works assembled by Leroux—views of Italy and Sicily—as the work of “one of the finest pupils of the École de Rome.” The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome notably holds Promenade du Pincio, an impressively large canvas.
This official recognition was confirmed by numerous state commissions and acquisitions, a participation in the 1937 Paris Universal Exhibition, and a long-standing career at the Institut. However, it is important to note that the painter and his work were profoundly affected by his involvement in the First World War, making these dreamlike, light-filled landscapes the poignant witnesses of the first part of his life, still marked by a sense of carefree serenity.
Although our canvas does not depict a view of the Eternal City, it does represent one of the most iconic monuments of the equally renowned City of the Doges: the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. Leroux chose as his vantage point the fondamenta (a street running along a canal) on the opposite side of the Canal Grande, to the south of the San Marco district. The painter’s gaze skims the waters of the lagoon, from which emerge the bricole—the typical mooring posts used to tie gondolas—characteristic of the Molo of San Marco.
Even though the artist is renowned for his luminous landscapes, in which the air and all it carries seem to thrum under the effect of the sun, this painting stands out as singular within a body of work that is largely diurnal. Here, Leroux chose to capture the glimmers of dawn or dusk, leaving a deliberate ambiguity as to the exact moment, conveyed through a vibrant touch and feverish colours. In the background, the muffled, bluish shadow of the seventeenth-century Baroque church, like a sleeping giant, is discernible behind the dense mist rising from the seething, mirror-like waters of the Grand Canal. A single vertical shaft of light alone lends order to this mystical atmosphere; yet its source is absent from the composition, leaving the sky to suffuse the entire scene in purple. On the opposite side, the prow of a gondola thrusts forward to balance the composition and to provide an effective repoussoir, signifying the distance of the far shore, lost in vapour.
The painter depicted Venice on several occasions, notably in the view—more conventional within his body of work—of the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, seen from the Punta della Dogana, just beside the Salute.
Our canvas is therefore an uncommon work, in which Leroux conveyed a more mysterious, veiled and intimate sensibility, far removed from his compositions illuminated by an intense azure sky. Perhaps the lagoon and the beguiling mists of Venice inspired in him a light more dancing than that of the scorching sun of the countryside and Roman villas.
A final element, placed on the reverse of the work, proves particularly intriguing. Indeed, the old label affixed to the stretcher of the canvas makes it possible to trace the identity of the supplier from whom Leroux purchased his materials in order to execute the painting. This was the art supplier Emilio Aickelin, established at No. 2378, Via 22 Marzo, Venice. Well known and much appreciated by British artists travelling through the city at the turn of the twentieth century, his shop was both a meeting place and an essential stopping point for the anglophone artistic community of the period. John Singer Sargent, for instance, was among Aickelin’s most celebrated clients.