A pencil-and-ink drawing by the Venetian painter Canaletto that had never been publicly recorded has been authenticated and will be sold by Mallams in Oxford this autumn, Smithsonian Magazine reports. Canaletto specialist Charles Beddington confirmed the work, which could fetch up to $80,000.
The sketch is a capriccio, an imagined scene that blends fantasy with real architectural detail. It shows a crumbling Renaissance arcade beside a canal, crossed by a rickety footbridge on which a mother and child are walking. It was probably made between 1746 and 1755, while Canaletto was living in England, as a study for a painting.
An inscription describing it as a present from the artist suggests it was a gift. It is thought to have belonged to the composer Charles Burney and then passed down through his family for generations. Original drawings by Canaletto very rarely come up for sale.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine