Giuseppe Zais, 'Landscape with a Group of Figures', probably 1770-80
About the work
Overview
A group of smartly dressed men and women, accompanied by two dogs, talk among themselves. On the other side of the gently flowing river, peasants experience a very different life: they wash clothes and attend to cattle beside a rustic farmhouse. As a backdrop, this painting uses a rural village framed by trees and distant mountains, painted in thick brushstrokes of rich colour, as does its companion piece, Landscape with a Group of Figures Fishing (National Gallery, London).
Guiseppe Zais moved to Venice in around 1725/30, where he spent nearly 50 years as a landscape painter. This is a late work of around 1770/80s. In 1774, after several attempts, Zais was accepted as a member of the Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani, a prestigious society of artists working in Venice. His painting technique was inspired by Francesco Zuccarelli, whose Landscape with Figures and Cattle is also in the National Gallery’s collection.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Landscape with a Group of Figures
- Artist
- Giuseppe Zais
- Artist dates
- 1709 - 1784
- Date made
- probably 1770-80
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 49.5 × 65.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1889
- Inventory number
- NG1296
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1956Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1956
-
1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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