Chioggia was inspired by Aldro Hibbard's time in the eponymous town, located just south of Venice along the Adriatic coast, and like other scenes of the locale, the canvas is bathed in warm light, punctuating the cool blue of the water, sky, and shadows with golden sails and their rippling reflections. Painted early on in Hibbard’s career, his brushstrokes – relatively tight in comparison to the fluidity of his later works – exemplify the broken color technique that he embraced following his return from Europe.

More information about this painting...

Trained at the Boston Museum School, Hibbard carried forth the tenets of traditional academic art into the 20^th century. He exhibited widely in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and launched himself in the Boston art world with a one-man exhibition at the Boston Art Club in 1916. Three years later, a show of his winter scenes at the Guild of Boston Artists received glowing reviews.

Hibbard had long been interested in snow-covered landscapes, and at the recommendation of fellow Boston artist and Fenway Studios resident William J. Kaula, he first traveled to Vermont in 1915 and was immediately taken with the mountains, valleys, and charming residents of the region. By the 1930s, Hibbard established a schedule of spending the winter months in Vermont, and the rest of the year in Rockport, Massachusetts, where he had earlier established the Rockport Summer School of Drawing and Painting. He grew to become a legendary member of the North Shore artists’ colony.

A leader in the community, he remained active in nearby Boston, and in 1965 the Guild of Boston Artists, where Hibbard had exhibited for 45 years, mounted a retrospective exhibition of his work.

Provenance:

Private collection, Gloucester, Massachusetts, who acquired it through a friend who in turn acquired it from Roger W. Curtis, Hibbard’s friend and business manager, decades ago

Inscription:

(verso of canvas prior to lining) 27A