Robert Borlase Smart - Moonlight on the Grand Canal, Venice (ca. 1924)
In April 1924, Smart and his wife accompanied George and Minnie Turland Goosey on a visit to Venice. Minnie recorded, “We arrived in Venice at midnight with a full moon turning the place into an artist’s dream of heaven. It was as if it had all been rehearsed and timed perfectly. Around each turn in the smaller canals, we passed other gondolas whose occupants were singing softly, some to the accompaniment of mandolins, and there were those who were silent like ourselves just drinking in the beauty of it all. Moonlight in Venice is wonderful. George told me afterwards B.S., our Artist friend, unconsciously held his hand in a firm grip murmuring, ‘I can’t believe its true, it must be a dream’. This painting, which was hung at the Paris Salon in 1927, aims to capture that moment and is a very daring composition. (source)
