Festa Notturna, Venice
WAG 2273
Information
This is the church of Santa Maria della Salute seen from the opposite bank of the Grand Canal. In 1925 the art critic Alfred Lys Baldry (1858 - 1939) wrote of Terrick Williams's art: "It is characteristic of him that in the majority of cases he chooses aspects of nature which present particular difficulties to the painter, effects of twilight or sunshine, elusive combinations of colour, subtleties of aerial tone, which demand exceptional sensitiveness of observation." The painting here is a clear example of this attention to the effects of light, colour and atmosphere.
A sketch for this composition, dated 1925 and apparently exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1934 (524), was sold at Sotheby's (Billingshurst) 24 May 1988, lot 355.