Description

The Foundation’s Villa Loredan is part of a series painted for John Strange, British Minister Resident at Venice and a great collector. The other paintings may be found at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (A View of Villa Loredan From the Garden), at the National Gallery of London (A View of Villa Pisani in Paese), while The Garden of Palazzo Contarini del Zaffo in Venice is at the Art Institute of Chicago. John Strange, a personage nearly as brilliant as British consul Joseph Smith of the previous generation, both acutely observed by Francis Haskell, was crucial in securing relations between England and Venice. Referring to the view of Villa Loredan, recently acquired by the foundation, he attributes to it “exceptional beauty and freshness.”