Claude Monet - Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur 1908
Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur 1908
65x100cm oil/canvas
Sold for: USD 16.66 million
Auction house: Sotheby’s, London
Sale date: 03 February 2016
Seller: Private Collection, Switzerland
Buyer: Anonymous buyer
From Sotheby’s, London:
Monet’s spectacular view of the Palazzo Ducale on the Grand Canal belongs to the extraordinary series he completed in Venice in the fall of 1908. Painted from the south-east vantage of a floating pontoon, the scene depicts the Palace, with its Byzantine fenestrations adorning the façade, alongside the Ponte della Paglia and the prison building on the right. To the left of the palace is the entrance to Saint Mark’s square, and the silhouette of the bell tower and can be seen in the open space. Through a Renaissance-inspired sfumato technique Monet conjures the briny mist of the Adriatic, and the oblique pontoon and moorings convey the lulling motion of its current.