6613 - Canal, Giambattista

Canal, Giambattista Rebekah and Eliezer at the Well Outside the City of Haran. Brown brushwork, brown wash over pencil. 28.3 x 40 cm. Circa 1800. Giambattista Canal was the son of the painter Fabio Canal (1701–1767), a longtime collaborator of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. He worked as a fresco painter in Venice, Trieste, and Ferrara. His body of drawings remains largely unexplored, and only about two dozen drawings by his hand are known to exist. This drawing depicts a scene from Genesis 24, in which Eliezer, in gratitude for the water provided for his retinue, presents Rebekah with a necklace and two bracelets made of solid gold. This charming depiction is enlivened—not least by the camels trotting in from the right and Rebekah’s graceful posture—with an elegantly humorous touch. The drawing’s neoclassical style is visibly related to the fresco decorations in the Palazzo Filodrammatico in Treviso from 1804. - With an expert opinion by George Knox, Vancouver, dated June 29, 2006 (copy available). Provenance: Richard Herrlinger Collection, Vienna (recto, Lugt 5818). Anton Schmid Collection, Vienna. Helmut Märkt Collection, Reutlingen. Sabrina Förster Gallery, Düsseldorf, Fall Catalog 2006/2007, No. 33, with illustration. - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is only indicated in the catalog in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.