Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The Piazza San Marco, Venice

The Piazza San Marco – domes catching the sun against a blue sky

The Piazza San Marco, Venice is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, made in 1881. The original measures 65.4 x 81.3 cm, is catalogued as 51.19 and hangs in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Our hand-painted painting The Piazza San Marco is worked in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 80 x 65 to 170 x 140 cm.

The museum’s record notes something that matters here: the canvas was left in a sketch-like state, without any studio reworking. Renoir stopped in Venice at the end of October 1881 on his Italian tour and painted the scene on the spot, in rapid, pure, unmixed colour. Simple daubs stand in for the light on the facade, for the people and for the pigeons.

Gilded gables above the crowd

The basilica of San Marco fills the upper half of the canvas. Its domes and gilded gables catch the sun against a blue sky laid in with broad strokes; the darkest note is the deep blue-green of the central arch. The piazza opens pale and almost empty in the foreground, crossed by long violet shadows, with a scatter of pigeons in blue-grey. At the left a thin crowd of figures stands, each only a few marks, and the corner of the arcade closes the view.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. It is on exactly this kind of canvas that the difference is greatest: every stroke stays visible as a separate load of paint, distinct from its neighbour, and the ground is left open in places. Painting it by hand keeps that difference, which printed paper cannot imitate.

In the room

The subject is bright, blue and gold and opens a room, so it works well in a living room, a dining room or an entrance hall, above all on the wall facing the door. On a narrower wall 100 x 80 cm works, on a wider one 150 x 120 cm; on a large wall it carries 170 x 140 cm, with 160 x 130 cm as the step before. Under 80 x 65 cm the domes and gables merge into one bright area and the basilica stops having volume.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. The Piazza San Marco, Venice arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: the basilica of San Marco above the square, domes against a blue sky, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 80 x 65 cm to 170 x 140 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the sky is not an even blue but laid in strokes – that is why the gold on the gables reads as warm

See also:

• The Pont des Arts, Paris
• Woman with a Parasol in a Garden
• Luncheon of the Boating Party