Object Description
Large Italian genre painting by Antonio Ermolao Paoletti
Italian, late 19th Century
Frame: Height 64cm, width 84cm, depth 8cm
Canvas: Height 40cm, width 60cm, depth 2cm
This fine painting is by the leading Venetian genre painter Antonio Ermolao Paoletti. The work depicts a canal side scene: a young boy has caught an eel on a fishing rod, which he dangles before a mother and child to their apparent horror. The diffused outline of a church indicates the distant shoreline, and the water between is home to several sailing boats. Paoletti’s painterly manner is excellent: he employs fluid brushstrokes tandem with delicate ones to create a visually and texturally appealing painted surface.
The painting is held within an ornate carved giltwood frame and is signed lower right ‘Antonio Paoletti fu Giov_ni / Venezia’. The frame is titled bottom centre ‘Catching A Farter / A. Paoletti’.