Among the leading figures of the genre, which is at the centre of a necessary re-evaluation, was Pietro Bellotti, Canaletto’s nephew and the younger brother of Bernardo Bellotti. Born in Venice in 1725, he developed a manner that was very different to that of the Canaletto ‘clan’ of which he was a part and despite exploiting the fame of his uncle (especially in France, where he lived for 50 years, calling himself “le Sieur Canalety” or “Pietro Bellotti di Caneletty”). After moving to Toulouse with his family, he stayed for a brief apprenticeship in his brother’s workshop and then was active in Besançon, Nantes, Lille and Paris and, at least for a brief period, in England. Adopting an autonomous, personal style, he developed Canaletto’s inventions, producing numerous views of Europe’s most important cities, together with some architectural capriccios, some of which realised with the collaboration of other landscape painters.
The exhibition will offer a survey of the painter’s long working life, bringing together the few of his works conserved in public collections, such as at the Yale Center for British Art and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and about 40 other pictures, including signed works in private European collections.
Venue.- Ca’ Rezzonico – Museum of 18th-century Venice. Italy.
Dates.- December 7th 2013 to April 28th 2014.
Curated by Charles Beddington, Alberto Craievich and Domenico Crivellari
Pietro Bellotti was born in Venice in 1725. When he is 16, he is registered as an apprentice in the workshop of his brother, who is only three years older than him and who has been registered in the schedules of ‘Guild of painters‘ when he was 16 years old. Less than a year after the young painter abandons the house where her brother lives with her mother.
Pietro Bellotti is then in Genoa in 1746, where he met his future wife. Throughout the second half of the century he is in France. Toulouse, the city where he lives his family, remains the center of his activities, but he is also found in Nantes (1755-1768), Besancon (1761) and Lille (1778-1779), and of course in Paris on several occasions (the first time in 1754-1755). Pietro Bellotti takes advantage of being the newpew of Canaletto and his fame in France, calling himself “le Sieur Canalety‘ or ‘Pietro Bellotti di Caneletty“. With an independent style and personal elaborates the inventions of Canaletto, creating numerous views of the most important cities in Europe, as well as some architectural ‘capricci‘.
In the 60s of the 18th century Pietro Bellotti is in England. His contemporary Jean-Paul Lucas writes in 1805 “Pietro Bellotti died recently in France”.
