Pietro Longhi

Pietro Longhi was a prolific artist much admired and collected by patrons in his native Venice; while his contemporary Canaletto was more sought by foreigners who prized views of the city, Venetian collectors seem to have preferred Longhi's delicate depictions of every aspect of Venetian life. The present sheet, for example, relates to one of Longhi's paintings showing the Furlana, a country dance that began with peasants in the Fruili region northeast of Venice, but which during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became both a subject of interest to musicians (including Bach and Mozart) and a minor sensation when danced by members of polite society (the Venetian Giacomo Casanova, for example, describes it in his memoirs). Longhi produced at least three canvases dedicated to the dance: the most famous of these is at Ca' Rezzonico, and another was sold at Christie's, New York, 29 January 1998, lot 96, but the this drawing relates to a third sold at Finarte, Milan, 19 May 1999, lot 27: the recto of the drawing relates to the man seated on a stool at lower right.