The Sun of Venice
Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
British, 1821–1906

Details
Title
The Sun of Venice
Artist/Maker
Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (British, 1821–1906)
Date
1880–1900
Medium
Graphite and colored chalk on paper
Dimensions
9 7/8 x 14 3/4 inches
Credit
Gift of Hildegard and Clyde Ryals
Accession #
2007.130
On View
Currently not on view
Born Hercules Brabazon Sharpe in Paris, he adopted the family name Brabazon in 1847 on the death of his brother. A wealthy man following a second inheritance in 1858, Brabazon was able to travel widely and to pursue a bachelor life devoted to art and music. A naturally gifted painter with little formal training, he was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1891 and achieved late celebrity through a series of exhibitions from 1892 at the Goupil Gallery in Bond Street, London. The critic D.S. MacColl called him "the best water-colour painter we have had since Turner," and in this preferred medium Brabazon took forward the model of Turner's work into a personal kind of impressionism. This pastel is a re-creation or reminiscence of Turner's The Sun of Venice, a late oil exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1843 (Tate Britain, London). Its title refers to the name of a Venetian fishing boat emblazoned on the sail; here, the phrase also evokes the mystery of the Venetian lagoon, suggested with an economy of technique.
More from this Artist
Browse Related Artwork

Frank Sutcliffe

Samuel Colman

Alex Katz

Harry Callahan

Edgar Degas

Walker Evans

Joseph Jones

Jay Wolke

Charles Henry Alston

William Andrews Nesfield

Philip Kappel

Dennis Brokaw