Skip Navigation

Jour de Fête à Venise

Eugene Lawrence Vail

American Art

This brilliantly colored image of the famous façade 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.

MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES ca. 1904
DIMENSIONS 68 x 78 3/4 in. (172.7 x 200 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "Eugene Vail"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 32.116
CREDIT LINE Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Eugene Lawrence Vail (American, 1857-1934). Jour de Fête à Venise, ca. 1904. Oil on canvas, 68 x 78 3/4 in. (172.7 x 200 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.116 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.116_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 32.116_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2005
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.