Visit to a Library
Artist
Pietro Longhi
(Venetian, 1702–1785)
Dateabout 1760
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 59.1 x 44.3 cm (23 1/4 x 17 7/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1942.2
DescriptionA lady and a gentleman are being introduced into a library by a man. Another man on the right continues obliviously his studies.Label TextLonghi was one of the most popular artists in eighteenth-century Venice. Turning away from expansive historical and religious subjects, he devoted himself to detailed scenes of contemporary life. Like the work of two French counterparts, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Antoine Watteau, his art reflects growing attacks on societal conventions, which became one of the hallmarks of the Age of Enlightenment. Here, portraying elegantly dressed visitors to a library as somewhat frivolous, Longhi ably captured the graceful decay of the Venetian republic. A gently ironic portrait of fashionable aristocracy, the painting is executed in subtle tones of yellow, silver, and pink against a neutral background.ProvenancePurchased by Betts, Frederick Seymour Clarke Sale, Christie's, London, February 10, 1933, lot 21; collection of Godfrey Locker-Lampson, London, by about 1937; Durlacher Bros. (dealers), New York, NY, by 1940; sold to the Worcester Art Museum, 1942.
On View
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