Canal degli Albrizzi (Venice) is painted by the talented Spanish artist Ricardo de Madrazo y Garreta (1852-1917), who perfectly conveyed the Venetian light and atmosphere of the late 19th-century European period. It is a very personal work, a cornerstone of Spanish Impressionistic realism, as well as high-bourgeois travel art. Madrazo was a grandson of José de Madrazo, son of Federico de Madrazo, and brother-in-law of the renowned Mariano Fortuny. Following Fortuny's premature death in 1874, Ricardo went on many trips to North Africa and Italy. He also visited Venice often and created a series of fine depictions of the city's buildings, marking his move away from historical painting to a more intuitive approach to his subject matter, one that involved observation in the real world.
Madrazo has taken a narrow (vertical) slice of the Canal degli Albrizzi in this particular canvas and has excluded the monumental tourist landmarks of Venice, such as St. Mark's Basilica. Rather, he's interested in the everyday life of the city's waterways, not the dazzling ones, but those by which people travel for the most mundane of purposes. The composition emphasises the sturdy vertical walls of the old Venetian palazzi, which soar out of the water in a steep descent, their brick walls and cracked plaster. At the bottom, two figures are riding down the black water canal; one is large, and one is small. The figures in the bottom part of the image are both on gondolas, with the larger figure taking center stage and the old architecture casting an eye over his shoulder.
The painting is a masterful free-hand oil spray, with precise brushwork and light handling. Madrazo's palette is brilliant; it is high-keyed and is mainly warm ochres, deep terracottas, and cooling teals. The upper portion of the painting is illuminated, light reflecting off the stone balconies and wrought-iron window grills, while the lower portion of the canal is in the shade and a cool, translucent black. A few quick, delicate strokes are used to paint the water, which plays with the building reflections as they change, and it is clearly a conversation with French Impressionism.
Canal degli albrizzi was painted by the talented Madrazo. He spent a considerable period of his life in Venice and thus painted intimate settings of alleys, canals and waterways of the city. This piece was wrongly attributed to Raimundo de Madrazo. The painting combines realism and plein air painting. Madrazo delicately depicts the details of the city in an intimate and tranquil setting.
