In 1908 Griffin traveled abroad for the second time, with stays in Norway, Paris and Boigneville, a village on the outskirts of the capital, where he adopted a technique of using his palette knife to achieve a thicker impasto. By 1913, Griffin was working in Venice where he applied this new manner of painting to his scenes of the ancient cathedrals, narrow passageways and bustling canals of the Floating City. In Marketplace, Venice, Italy, his bold strokes of thick paint result in a textured rendition of a church tower and Italian flag rising over the crowd of merchants and shoppers below. He would later state, “It was in Venice that I found myself. I discovered the technique which best expressed my feelings.”[1]

More information about this painting...

Provenance:

Estate of the artist
To Vose Galleries, inventory no. G-202
To private collection, Lakewood, New Jersey, August 1975
Eventually to collection, Boston, Massachusetts
To private collection, Newton, Massachusetts, February 2013 to present

Inscription:

1. (verso in pencil) No. 1 / Market Place / Venice #
2. (verso in pencil) Walter Griffin / Venice 1913
3. (verso in pencil) VENICE 1913

Labels:

1. Previous Vose Galleries label, Inventory No. G-202
2. (stamp on frame and panel) From / Vose Galleries / of Boston, Inc. / 238 Newbury Street

Literature:

Illustrated in black and white in the Vose Galleries exhibition catalogue 

Exhibitions:

Walter Griffin: American Impressionist (1861-1935), Vose Galleries, Boston, 1975