Felix Ziem's Painting Evaluation

Felix Ziem painted this painting some time in the 1840s-1860s. #Felix Ziem studied architecture in Dijon while painting landscapes with water colors even then in his youth. Then from 1841-1843, he lived in Russia and painted sights from the Bosphorus, and was influenced by Cort and Rousseau; also, he began to use mostly oil paint. He then traveled a lot and painted much of Venice and Turkey. This painting comes from his many impressionistic (even though he was pre-impressionist) paintings from Venice.

#The title refers to the two protruding stone Esclaron piers visible in the foreground. The painting is painted with receding perspective lines in the near edge of the canvas protruding thoroughly balanced towards the left center. The subject is at first the obviously wealthy group beginning to embark on a leisurely trip down the Grand Canal. One woman is dressed in purple--wealthy color-- another is in yellow, a darkened figure in blue must be a servant. Someone who looks to be a soldier in red is preparing the boa

Ziem uses dabs of many colors cool colors mostly, but gives much variety by showing the light gleaming off in carefully chosen areas with often bright and contrasting intensities. The giant warship takes up ¼ of the painting on the far left front but its light cool colors offset it to balance with the group embarking on the canal ride. Putting the people scene on the left and the ship on the right was probably no accident either. And the perspective lines point right to the rich group.

The detail of this background quickly guides you back to the foreground but to the darker right side of the large warship with sails down gliding by the lazy scene of aristocrats. The colors of the men are darker and cooler blues and grays and whites. One thing that catches the eye is the purple canopy on the warship and under it is a captain. He could be Italian but they look English in uniform, and that coincides with the red-coated marine preparing the boat for the nobility. Perhaps the duke is meeting the Duke but probably tomorrow; no one seems to be in a hurry.

t. A dark

Some topics in this essay:
Grand Canal, Italian English, Venice Turkey, Felix Ziem, Cort Rousseau, Evaluation Quai, perspective lines, cool colors, canal ride, preparing boat, leisurely trip,