Culture Minister Defers Export Of A Pair Of Paintings By Canaletto, View Of The Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens And The Interior Of The Rotunda, Ranelagh

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Culture Minister, David Lammy, has placed a temporary export bar on two paintings by Giovanni Antonio Canal, Il Canaletto (1697-1768): View of the Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens and The Interior of the Rotunda, Ranelagh . This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the paintings in the United Kingdom.

The Minister's ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the paintings are so closely connected with our history and national life that their departure would be a misfortune and on the grounds that they are of outstanding significance for the study of Canaletto and, in particular, his English period.

These two paintings, almost certainly made as a pendant pair and fine examples of Canaletto's English period, record the appearance, and convey something of what must have been the atmosphere, of two of eighteenth-century London's most popular and fashionable places of entertainment: Vauxhall Gardens, on the south bank of the Thames, and the Rotunda at Ranelagh, in Chelsea. They are characterised by a firm sense of theatrical composition and an absolute grasp of perspective, a lively feel for anecdotal incident and a deft handling of the brush to capture draperies, poses and gestures. In particular, Canaletto conveys very effectively the different sensations of being outdoors or in an interior space.

The decision on the export licence application for the paintings will be deferred for a period ending on 20 February 2006 inclusive. This period may be extended until 20 June 2006 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the paintings at the recommended price of £6,000,000 (excluding VAT ) is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the paintings should contact the owner's agent through:

The Secretary
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
83 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0HW

Notes to Editors

1. From April 2005, responsibility for administering the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) was passed by DCMS to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Media enquiries on the operation and casework arising from RCEWA and from the Acceptance in Lieu and Government Indemnity Schemes and the export licence system should go to Emma Poole/ Gemma Crisp on 020 7273 1459, email emma.poole@mla.gov.uk and gemma.crisp@mla.gov.uk

2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, run by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.

3. Vauxhall Gardens were laid out at the Restoration but enjoyed their greatest period of popularity in the mid-eighteenth century. Large numbers of visitors arrived in the late afternoon or evening and promenaded, listened to music, and dined in the individual supper boxes by the light of 1500 oil lamps.

4. Ranelagh was opened in 1742 as a rival, on the north side of the River Thames, and was considered a more refined and sedate alternative. Its centrepiece was the Rotunda, an impressive building designed by William Jones, with an interior diameter of 150 feet, which offered fine musical entertainment. The young Mozart performed here on 29 June 1764.

5. Ranelagh was closed and dismantled in 1803 and Vauxhall Gardens followed in 1859. The two paintings under consideration together with a depiction of the interior of the Rotunda from the opposite end, also painted by Canaletto and now in the National Gallery, constitute the definitive records of these important places of fashionable resort in eighteenth-century London. No other painted versions are known.

6. Canaletto came to this country in 1746 in the hope of securing the patronage of the many Grand Tourists for whom he had already worked in Venice. The War of the Austrian Succession had made it more difficult for foreign visitors to travel to Venice and the artist decided to travel to where his clients were. The ten years he spent in England were not his happiest, but they yielded a considerable number of superb pictures, several of which are still in private collections in this country, notably those of the Dukes of Buccleuch, Northumberland and Richmond.

7. These paintings appear to date from about 1751, immediately after Canaletto's return from his trip to Venice in 1750. The View of the Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens is painted in a high key typical of his English works, while the Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh employs a broader tonal range and a more varied set of contrasts of light and shade.

8. The paintings are oil on canvas, measure 51 x 76 cm and are in generally good condition in spite of minor abrasion and the fading of some pigments in the costumes.

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