Brooklyn Museum: American Art: Jour de Fête à Venise

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Jour de Fête à Venise

This brilliantly colored image of the famous faÃ§ade of Saint Mark's is one of Vail's best-known works. The large canvas demonstrates the dramatic change after the turn of the century in both his subject matter and style, away from the somber figure subjects that had reflected his Parisian academic training. The artist has manipulated the composition to emphasize those elements he found to be most visually dynamic. The enormous flags play as prominent a role in the image as the landmark cathedral itself. The artist later commented, in fact, that the flags, their volume and their movement, were the actual subject of the painting.

Artist: Eugene Lawrence Vail, American, 1857-1934
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: ca. 1904
Dimensions: 68 x 78 3/4 in. (172.7 x 200 cm)
Signature: Signed lower left: "Eugene Vail"
Collections: American Art
Museum Location: This item is not on view
Accession Number: 32.116
Credit Line: Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins
Image: Overall, 32.116_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2005