Grand Canal, Venice, attributed to Giuseppe Bison, £34,000 at Gardiner Houlgate.
Attributed to Italian painter Giuseppe Bison (1762-1844), the 21½in x 2ft 6in (54 x 76cm) oil on canvas formed part of a single-owner sale of art and antiques assembled over the last 50 years from a country house in Wiltshire and was conservatively estimated at £2000-3000 in the May 11 auction.
Considered one of the last great vedutisti, Bison painted the expansive vista of the Grand Canal multiple times. The painting here depicts the busy broad central waterway framed by the city’s distinctive architecture.
Presented in a Chippendale-style gilt gesso and wooden frame, it came with a label for the art dealership Frost & Reed and bore an old inscription with the name Francesco Mola.
A near identical view, fully attributed, sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2011 for $340,000 (around £215,000).
