Biography

Francesco Guardi was an Italian painter, best known as one of the last of artist of the Venetian school of painting. This movement was characterized by a focus on color and varied brushwork, rather than the line and sculptural draughtsmanship favored by the Italian Mannerists. Guardi’s veduta (aerial cityscape) paintings are filled with dabs and flecks of color, which create a sense of light and movement in the sky, water, and gilded boats he often depicted. Though he was not as highly esteemed as his rival painters during his lifetime, by the 19th century Guardi’s works were highly regarded by the French Impressionists for their atmospheric use of color and varied brushstrokes. Born on October 5, 1712 in Venice, Italy into an aristocratic family of artists, Guardi went on to study at the workshop of Michele Marieschi in 1735. Today, his works are in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, among others. Guardi died on January 1, 1793 in Venice, Italy.