Contact gallery for price		Félix François-Georges-Philibert Ziem French, 1821-1911 Grand Canal with a View of Bacino San Marco Oil on panel 28 x 39 inches Signed lower right: Ziem Felix Ziem was born in Beaume in the Cote d’Or of the Burgundy region of France in 1821.  He studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon until 1838.  His career as a painter was set in motion in 1839 when Ferdinand Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, acquired two watercolors by Ziem and commissioned six more.  By 1842 Ziem was in contact with members of the European aristocracy and began to travel extensively. Particularly notable are his numerous trips to Italian cities like Florence, Venice, Genoa, Naples, and Rome between 1846 and 1848.  After 1853, he also made frequent visits to Barbizon, where he was an active member of the Barbizon school.  Ziem is best known for his landscape paintings but was also a prolific painter of still-lifes, portraits, and animal paintings.  Above all, Ziem was a painter of Venice, a city he visited more than 20 times. Each of Ziem’s views of Venice display vivacity and originality and as our painting exemplifies, his ability to captured the essence of the grand city.  The point of view is that of a traveler entering the famed Grand Canal with a view of Bacino San Marco and the Piazza beyond. Ziem’s use of bright lively colors and quick bold brushwork masterfully captures the atmospheric qualities of lagoon city.  He demonstrates his ability to transcribe the fleeting iridescence of light on the water. Ziem enjoyed much success during his lifetime exhibiting at the Salon regularly between 1849 and 1868 and his works were much sought after by upper-class collectors. Towards the end of his life he received many official honors and his paintings were the first by a living artist to enter the Louvre in 1910.