Doge's Palace, Venice

View of the Doge's Palace in Venice as seen from the waters of Grand Canal, painted in very rough manner using short strokes of thick impastoed paint, leaving some parts of the board uncovered. The monumental building with characteristic ground arcade dominates the centre of the composition with the facade painted in soft tones of pink. Signed at lower right.

Vitality was the quality which Hunter thought was essential in a picture along with his great love of colour. His painting technique was not stable and changed frequently, often responding to different atmospheres of the places depicted. Hunter fell in love with the atmosphere of Southern Europe and visited its coasts quite often. Especially his travels across the continent in 1922 were a great source of inspiration to him. After visiting Paris and Florence, he spent some time in Venice, where he found the effects of light on the waters of the lagoon to be a powerful stimulus and produced some direct and vigorous canvases such as Doge's Palace, Venice.

Doge's Palace was built in distinctive Venetian Gothic style and situated on the St. Mark's Square, it is one of the city's key landmarks. Formerly the official residence of the Doge of Venice, the palace opened as a museum in 1923. Doge, the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice, was a position to which one of the city's elders was elected for life. Doges ruled Venice until 1797, when it passed under the power of Napoleon Bonaparte, following his conquest of the city.

Credit: Bequeathed by William McInnes, 1944