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Venetian Harbor and the Church of II Redentore

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Venetian Harbor and the Church of II Redentore, ca. 1905, Watercolor

Samuel H. Crone, American, 1858-1913

Gift of William S. Huff

"This watercolor painting is of a busy shipping and commercial area in Venice with piers in the foreground, a jumble of ships in the water, and a sixteenth century church designed by the famous architect Andrea Palladio in the distance.

When I was retrieving this painting from storage to prepare it for display it immediately caught my attention for the way in which Crone has captured the details of what he saw so meticulously.   The water, for me, comes alive with a variety of colors and dabs and squiggles of brushwork indicating movement.  He even goes so far as to record the water reflections of the ships indicating to me that he was not painting from memory by way of a sketch but actually painting at the site depicted.

This painting has also conjured up for me the memory of my first visit to Venice years ago.  I’ll never forget the vista that greeted me when I stepped out of the train station and was overwhelmed by a breathtaking scene full of color and ornate architecture just like in this painting – a moment in my lifetime that I will always fondly remember."

–Neil O'Brien, Exhibition Specialist

Venetian Harbor and the Church of II Redentore