This year sees the start of a new and fascinating investigation at Ca’ Rezzonico, the symbol of 18th century Venice, into landscape painting. This important genre developed during the 18th century in Venice, which provided an extraordinary source of inspiration for its exponents.
Among the leading figures of the genre, which is at the centre of a necessary re-evaluation, was Pietro Bellotti, Canaletto’s nephew and the younger brother of Bernardo Bellotti. Born in Venice in 1725, he developed a manner that was very different to that of the Canaletto ‘clan’ of which he was a part and despite exploiting the fame of his uncle (especially in France, where he lived for 50 years, calling himself “le Sieur Canalety” or “Pietro Bellotti di Caneletty”). After moving to Toulouse with his family, he stayed for a brief apprenticeship in his brother’s workshop and then was active in Besançon, Nantes, Lille and Paris and, at least for a brief period, in England. Adopting an autonomous, personal style, he developed Canaletto’s inventions, producing numerous views of Europe’s most important cities, together with some architectural capriccios, some of which realised with the collaboration of other landscape painters.
The exhibition will offer a survey of the painter’s long working life, bringing together the few of his works conserved in public collections, such as at the Yale Center for British Art and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and about 40 other pictures, including signed works in private European collections.