Henry Woods - At the foot of the Rialto, Venice

signed and dated l.l.: Henry Woods 1879-1883; indistinctly signed l.r.; inscribed with title on an old label on the reverse


oil on panel
7 by 11 ¼ in.
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 12,000 GBP

Henry Woods’s painting At the foot of the Rialto shows the north-western ramp of the Rialto bridge in Venice from a vantage point close to the Palazzo di Camerlenghi. Then, as now, market stalls set up in the Ruga di Oréfici, beside the church of San Giácomo di Rialto, which is the street that approaches the bridge on the San Polo side.

Woods first visited Venice in 1876, on the recommendation of his brother-in-law Luke Fildes. From 1878 onwards a stream of Venetian subjects by Woods appeared in the London exhibitions, ranging from genre subjects showing the life of the city, to delightful bravura sketches of its obscure and more familiar quarters. In these last pictures, Woods was responsive to the flickering colours and intensity of light characteristic of the place. According to an article describing Woods’ work in Venice in the 1886 Art Journal, he found a studio in the garden of a palace near the church of San Sebastiano in the Dorsoduro. Many of his subjects show this south-western quarter of the city, which is fronted by the Zattere and which faces across to the Giudecca.

Woods exhibited a view of the Rialto at the Royal Academy in 1881. The present oil was probably a related study for the exhibited work.