Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Bonington

This is the first sketch I did before the Cornish Cream Tea. It's a sketch of the painting of Venice: the Piazza San Marco by Richard Parkes Bonington(1802 - 1828) in one of the galleries of the Wallace Collection

Sketch of Venice: the Piazza San Marco (1828)
an oil painting by Richard Parkes Bonington
11" x 8", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine Sketchbook

I chose it because I turned a corner and this painting just grabbed me and insisted I sketch it. I never demur when this happens.

Maybe it was something to do with the fact that it looked unfinished.  Maybe it was the composition.  It's usually about the colour when this happens and I suspect it was in this case. The web version on the Wallace Collection website definitely does not do it justice.

The context of the complementary colours of purple walls against old gold certainly got my retinal receptors zinging.

I learned that the Wallace Collection has one of the best collections of oil paintings and watercolours by Richard Parkes Bonington who died age 26 from consumption.  This painting was started in the year he died.

The Wallace Collection is fortunate to own probably the finest collection in the world of paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) - ten oils and twenty-five watercolours. They represent most of his major areas of interest, ranging from richly costumed historical scenes to views in France and northern Italy, particularly Venice.

Everything I've ever seen of Bonington's work suggests he's an artist who's worth studying.  Below are some links to biographies of and work by Bonington

Wallace Collection:

• address - Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN (nearest tube: Bond Street; more info about visiting)
• website - http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Links:

• Handprint - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Tate - Richard Parkes Bonington
• biography
• works
• Wikipedia - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Wikimedia - Richard Parkes Bonington