Footnotes

Provenance
With Brame & Lorenceau, Paris
Sale, Christie's, London, 23 March 1973, lot 99 (4,200 gns. to Eisenbeiss)
Sale, Christie's, London, 17 July 1981, lot 33 (£6,500)
Sale, Christie's, New York, 18 January 1983, lot 131 (for $15,000)
The Collection of Rudolf Nureyev
Sold by Order of the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation and Ballet Promotion Foundation, Christie's, New York, 13 January 1995, lot 116
Sale, Christie's, New York, 29 January 1999, lot 20

Often coupled with images of the ridotto, the present composition clearly enjoyed great popularity as attested to by the numerous versions which exist. In his book on Pietro Longhi, Pignatti was the first to suggest the hand of Giuseppe de Gobbis in several works of this particular composition, see for example those formerly in the collection of Dr. Olof Sundin and sold at Sotheby's on 15 May 1929, lot 28 and 291. A further version of the present composition and its companion, Il Ridotto, is in the San Diego Museum of Art, California (accession no. 1950.96 and 97).

The scene depicted in the current work is the Parlatorio delle Monache or Nun's Parlour in San Zaccaria. It shows the day on which the novices, pictured here crowding behind the grated windows, wait to receive a visit from their family and friends. A string quartet is on hand, far left, to entertain the visitors. This particular subject had been treated earlier, by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793, fig. 1) in a work, similarly paired with a depiction of the Ridotto, which are both now in Ca' Rezzonico, Venice.

One of the principal followers of Pietro Longhi, the Veronese artist Giuseppe de Gobbis has been identified as the author of a group of paintings in Ca' Rezzonico, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Salom Collection, Segromigno Monte, on the basis of Anna Pallucchini's study of paintings formerly in Palazzo Stucky. His works, like Longhi before him, are classic depictions of the Venetian contemporary life to which fashionable Europe was so attracted during the latter years of the Serene Republic.