I did not really time travel in Venice, although by the time I have finished reading the major history of the city, I may well feel as if I have.
One day, off the beaten track, or, as it is frequently pronounced in Venice, lost, we came upon a very old bookshop. Sitting in the very old bookshop were the kind of booksellers who would really prefer it if you did not buy the books. On the doorstep was the sop to the tourists which had probably been there since early last century, in the form of a creaky, rusting, revolving metal postcard stand. Fighting off the spiders I found a postcard at the back that was, in parts, not bent. I have every confidence that it had been there since the photograph was taken, possibly in the nineteen thirties. I have searched for the subject, Corte Della Comare and it is still there, cleaned up and now hosting Airbnb and similar touristy amenities.
I however, loved the nineteen thirties photograph and made a drawing inspired by the postcard. I am sure much of Venice looked similar nearly a hundred years ago. The vertiginous steps to the top floor and the well are still there. This courtyard was apparently, associated with midwives, traditionally, though very good luck with getting the extremely pregnant up the steps to the third floor.
Here is the drawing:
The washing on the line looks odd because it has masking fluid on it so that, once the painting is done I can let the white of the paper show through.
The optimism evinced in wearing white clothes, washed in well water, in seriously grubby surroundings, is admirable, though I notice old Venice is every bit as rubbish-free as modern Venice.
Though most of modern Venice is on mains water, presumably piped under the lagoon, the wells are still omnipresent. In centuries past, families ambitious to be known as benefactors to the city whilst booking a comfortable seat in the afterlife but not quite up to major patron of the arts status, funded wells. Some of the wells still have crests on them and they all have fancy carving. If you’re going to endow a well, well you would want it to look well.
Well I enjoyed drawing this, it is very much my version, though after ninety years I hope the original is out of copyright. Old photographs generally have copyright for fifty years after they were taken, though as I have not used any technical means to make my new artistic version drawn by hand, I don’t think this applies. Venice itself is full of copies, new versions, tarted-up artworks and just about digital everything. I should think there is hardly an inch of Venice that has not been photographed, drawn, mosaiced and generally, coloured in. I have five of my original sketches of Venice still to watercolour, which activity, I must say, is eminently suitable for a heatwave.
It is the city of art, and well, you know, water to the thirsting artist.
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