By Anne Leader
Famed Venetian genre painter Pietro Longhi died in that city on 8 May 1785. Though he began his career painting large-scale religious works and frescoes in the vein of Giambattista Tiepolo, he soon turned his attention to small-scale scenes of everyday Venetian life. Of course, the quotidian in Venice was often far from mundane, and his scenes are filled with beautifully dressed patricians, exotic animals and products brought to the port city from afar, peasants dancing and drinking, and music made in elegant saloni and more humble taverns. His work has often been compared to Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi, who some believe was his teacher, and the great genre painters of northern Europe, including William Hogarth, Antoine Watteau, Adriaen Brouwer, David Teniers the Younger, and Adriaen van Ostade.
John Wilson. “Longhi (iii).” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press
The Tickle, c. 1755. Oil on canvas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Fall of the Giants (detail), 1734. Fresco, Palazzo Morosini Sagredo, Venice
Painter in his Studio, 1740-45. Oil on canvas, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice
The Tooth Puller, 1746. Oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
The Apothecary, c. 1752. Oil on canvas, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice
The Rhinoceros, 1751. Oil on canvas, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice
The Ridotto in Venice, 1750s. Oil on canvas, Private collection
Vendor of Roast Meat, c. 1757. Oil on canvas. Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice
The Scent-Seller, c. 1741. Oil on canvas, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice
The Elephant, 1774. Oil on canvas, Private collection