Lot 125
CHARLES OPPENHEIMER R.S.A., R.S.W. (BRITISH 1876-1961) §
ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE
£32,700
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Session | 7th December 2023 at 18:00
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
Footnote
Though his name is inextricably linked with the Kirkcudbright School of artists, the half-German, Manchester-born-and-raised Oppenheimer did not in fact settle in this region until the end of World War One. Over time he became a respected stalwart of the Scottish art world and a Royal Scottish Academician. His oeuvre is firmly and famously associated with the depiction of Galloway. Less well known perhaps is the fact that, as his biographer Euan Robson puts it, “Italy was as much his muse as Galloway”. As a body of work, they are much less frequently seen outside private collections comparative to his Scottish subject matter. Lyon & Turnbull are therefore delighted to offer a scarce and significant Italian painting by the artist, the most monumental in scale and sophistication to be seen on the market for some years.
Oppenheimer’s love affair with Italy was a long and enduring one. In 1896 at the age of 21 he won a funded prize to travel to Florence and Venice. A deep passion for the country began. He was, in fact, retracing the steps of his father Ludwig Oppenheimer, a diversely talented individual who reputedly studied mosaic design and manufacture in Venice in the 1860s. It is thought the artist and his wife Connie travelled to Italy on honeymoon in 1903 and continued to do so frequently after the interlude of WW1, visiting throughout the 1920s and 30s. Verona and Venice were his main destinations of choice. This makes great sense: Oppenheimer was a master of depicting water and the play of light and shadow, and Venice especially with its canals and densely arranged architecture would have provided endless compositional inspiration to tempt his brush.
In 1913 Oppenheimer exhibited Italian pictures at Doig, Wilson and Wheatley gallery on George Street, Glasgow, as well as at the RSA. It was a significant exhibition and he received numerous positive reviews. The Glasgow Herald’s critic remarked: “Mr Oppenheimer’s work impresses by way of its distinguished draughtsmanship and a refined sense of colour…[The painting]…possesses exhilarating sparkle and there is a subtle restraint in colouring: there are none of those lurid splashes which give some pictures of Italy the effect of mere garishness.”
These words could quite easily be applied as a descriptor to the later painting of c.1928, On the Grand Canal, Venice, that we offer now for sale. Here we have a tranquil depiction of Venice’s most famous waterway, quiet and calm in the afternoon heat, the only sounds evoked being the lap of water against stone. Redolent, as the critic would have it, “…[of]…the drowsy felicity which belongs to life in these pleasant places.” The water is masterful; ripples and reflections rendered with comprehensive realism and skill. The light and heat of the day glare and glance off the stone walls whilst darkened alcoves and interiors coolly and enticingly recede into cleverly described shadow. Oppenheimer, as the Herald critic alluded, did not have a hyperbolic artistic vocabulary. This is attested to by the subtle tonalities of the palette here, which allow Venice to weave its romantic magic simply and on its own terms, free from excessive artistic licence.
Oppenheimer’s artworks were sketched en plein air, indeed sometimes painted outdoors too before finishing in the studio from earlier studies. One certainly senses that immediacy here; the plein air approach almost certainly responsible for rendering this painting so very transportive and truthfully evocative. One such working sketch for this painting is recorded in Robson’s monograph of the artist (Euan Robson, Charles Oppenheimer: From Craftsman to Artist, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, p.73, pl.s39), a watercolour c.1928, held now in a private collection.
The subject, Palazzo Contarini Fasan, is an unusual 15th-century Venetian gothic structure. It is also known as Casa di Desdemona for its famed associations with Shakespeare’s Othello. Legend has it that Nicola Contarini, a famous heroic leader in the wars against the Turks in the 1500s, once lived in the palazzo. He was said to have had dark skin, subsequently nicknamed "Moor". Contarini's wife, Palma Querini, was the inspiration, possibly, for the character of Desdemona. Exhausted by the brutal jealousy of her husband, she fled the marriage to return to her family. Furthermore, John Ruskin wrote in his The Seven Lamps of Architecture that the palazzo was "the most elaborate piece of architecture in Venice." Little wonder then, that the romanticism of the building’s legendary history and its unusual and beautiful façade captured the attention of Oppenheimer, who afforded it a substantially sized stretch of canvas.
