Bernardo Bellotto, Italian, 1721-1780
Title: Dresden from the Right Bank of the Elbe, below the Augustus Bridge
Date: c.1750
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51.5 x 84 cm
Signed: lower centre: Bernard Bellotto dit Canaletto Peintre du Roi.
Credit Line: Purchased, 1883
Object Number: NGI.182
DescriptionDresden is viewed in morning sunlight, with the Augustus bridge and recently completed Catholic Court Church by the Italian architect Gaetano Chiavari, which partly conceals the old Castle of the Electors. Beyond is the Brühl Terrace and the dome of the Lutheran Church of Our Lady. Bellotto is meticulous in showing details of even the minor
buildings.
buildings.
ProvenanceCollection M.B. Naryshkin; purchased, Paris, 5 April 1883, M.B. Naryschkine Sale, lot 2 (with NGI.181)
Exhibition HistoryBurlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1911
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Art Institute of Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993
Bernardo Bellotto: European Vedutas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 14 March - 19 June 2005
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Art Institute of Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993
Bernardo Bellotto: European Vedutas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 14 March - 19 June 2005
Label TextA nephew and pupil of the famous Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto was a renowned painter of so-called vedute (views). He was the highest-paid artist at the court of Frederick-Augustus II in Dresden for more than a decade. This meticulously painted view of Dresden, like its pendant (NGI.181), depicts the impressive Augustus Bridge, with the Catholic Court Church in the right middle ground. The grey, austere architecture contrasts with the warm, earth-toned river bank in the left foreground, which includes local people at work.