''The Grand Canal'' is a 1908 painting by Australian artist

Arthur Streeton Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. Early life Streeton was born in Mt Moriac, Victoria, sou ...

. The work depicts the Grand Canal in Venice as seen from a viewpoint on

Ca' Foscari Ca' Foscari, the palace of the Foscari family, is a Gothic building on the waterfront of the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It was built for the doge Francesco Foscari in 1453, and designed by the architect B ...

. The work was acquired by Australian businessman Arthur Baillieu (father of arts patron

Sunday Reed Sunday Reed (born Lelda Sunday Baillieu) (15 October 190515 December 1981) was an Australian patron of the arts. Along with her husband, Reed established what is now the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Personal life Reed was born on 15 October 1905 ...

) in 1914. It later passed to his sister Amy Shackell and was subsequently privately held by her extended family; its whereabouts unknown to the broader art community. In 2018, the then head of the

Hamilton Gallery Hamilton Gallery is a public art gallery in the regional town of Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. Hamilton Gallery's collection features gouache and watercolour pictures by English landscape painter Paul Sandby Paul Sandby (1731 – 7 No ...

, Sarah Schmidt "rediscovered" the painting in the family's private Western District home. Streeton's contemporary, artist and gallery trustee

Lionel Lindsay Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay (17 October 187422 May 1961) was an Australian artist, known for his paintings and etchings. Early life Lindsay was born in the Victorian town of Creswick, into a creative family – he was the brother of artist Norm ...

said of the painting: "Can I sufficiently acclaim it? All Streeton's powers are here concentrated as in his ''Centre of Empire'', his mastery of composition and atmospheric truth, the distinction of his colour and touch". Schmidt described the work as "assuredly among Arthur Streeton's very best, a glorious work capturing all of the splendor and beauty of Venice" and "the very pinnacle of Streeton's Venetian series and indeed, of his extensive body of European work". The painting sold at auction in April 2021 for

AUD The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island s ...

3,068,180 to a private buyer, at the time a record price for a Streeton work.

References

External links

*Schmidt, Sarah (2019
A significant Streeton rediscovery: 'The Grand Canal' (1908)
''Art Monthly Australia'' Paintings by Arthur Streeton 1908 paintings {{20C-painting-stub