Abel George Warshawsky (American, 1883-1962). Toward San Giorgio, Venice, circa 1909. Oil on canvas. 25 x 32 inches (63....

Description

Abel George Warshawsky (American, 1883-1962)
Toward San Giorgio, Venice, circa 1909
Oil on canvas
25 x 32 inches (63.5 x 81.3 cm)
Signed lower right: A. G. Warshawsky

Property from the Wainwright Collection of American Modernism

PROVENANCE:
Tregoning & Company, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, August 1999;
Private collection, Fort Myers, Florida, acquired from the above.

This lovely and freshly painted Venetian view across the Canale di San Marco captures the delight Abel Warshawsky experienced painting La Serenissima for the very first time in his career. In 1909, he traveled together with his American compatriot, painter Samuel Halpert, and recorded his vivid first experiences of the floating city in journals, which fortuitously made their way into a lively memoir, The Memories of an American Impressionist, published posthumously. (Kent State University Press, 1980) Warshawsky's record chronicles a wealth of colorful episodes describing how he and Halpert worked from life in Venice, who they encountered, what they saw, what they ate and drank, and even how this particular painting came into being.

During their 1909 tour of Italy, Warshawsky and Halpert befriended the painter Ivan Olinsky, who for years had worked with John LaFarge, America's foremost mural decorator. They met in Rome where Olitsky, who had worked throughout the previous winter in Venice, was, as Warshawsky put it, "full of enthusiasm for the city of St. Mark's." (Memories, p. 74) He urged the pair to visit Venice next, and even went ahead of them to secure a place for them to stay along a small canal, not far from the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Their proximity to the Salute resulted in an artistic "star sighting" when one morning Warshawsky spotted, not far from his Venetian apartment, "an elderly, bearded gentleman painting a small canvas of one of the doors of the Salute. He was working in a very slow and precise manner. It was a striking study. When viewed from nearby, it looked as though it had been painted in a very loose and careless manner, but at the distance of six feet, it took on remarkable strength and reality. I found him working on that study two subsequent mornings and learned he was John Singer Sargent." (Memories, p. 82)

The pair spent three weeks in Venice, and found the city "a paradise for sketching"-averaging two sketches a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Warshawsky reminisced, "The narrow canals with their quaint old buildings reflected in the water, the dark mass of a gondola stealing through and giving motion to the scene, were tempting opportunities for the painter to be seized at every turn. Peeling plaster on the old walls, with the red bricks shining beneath and the mouldy green tints near the water's edge, the parti-colored mooring poles for gondolas-all these motifs, though they have been painted innumerable times, were still a tempting lure for our brushes." (Memories, p. 81)

The occasion of Ivan Olitsky's birthday provided the circumstances which gave rise to the present work. Warshawky recalled, "[Olitsky] invited us to lunch to celebrate... We lunched, if not wisely, very well and liquidly, with the result that we floated rather than walked, from the table. Despite the festive occasion, it was decided not to waste the afternoon, so we sat down and sketched. My subject was a view of San Giorgio with boats in the foreground. Everything appeared topsy-turvy and the colors were blurred. The boys swore it was a masterpiece of its kind. But I wondered what their verdict would be when the effects of our potations had worn off. We ended that afternoon with a fine nap in the shade. Whenever I look at that wine-inspired canvas-for it still figures among the souvenirs of my Italian journey-I must modestly confess that it would have held its own among the effusions of the modern delirium-tremens school of painting [Warshawsky's affection for modern art stopped with impressionism]." (Memories, p. 83)

The present painting is a larger and more finished version of the sketch Warshawsky painted immediately after Olitsky's liquid birthday lunch. This canvas retains the vitality of a first impression, and also possesses the plucky chromatic boldness that characterizes the painter's very best efforts. The aqua water sings against the bright orange sail in the foreground, a deliberate play of contrasting secondary colors that creates dazzling visual vibration. This gutsy use of color is one Warshawsky adopted from seeing impressionist painting firsthand in Europe, which then he brought back to his native Cleveland in a series of exhibitions that lit the fire of Modernism in the art community there. In this canvas, Warshawky's vantage point was the easternmost end of the quay directly facing San Giorgio Maggiore-the Riva degli Schiavoni, just where it becomes the Riva di Ca' Di Dio. One is looking at the side of complex where the bell tower stands, while the white marble Palladian façade is not visible. Further to the right along the Giudecca in the distance one can make out the domes of both the Zitelle and Il Redentore. Warshawsky spent most of his career in France, returning periodically to sell his paintings to American collectors.




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