“Venice Sailboats”

Original watercolor and gouache on archival paper of Venice sailboats by the well known American artist, William Stanley Haseltine. Signed with the artist’s three initials lower right. Circa 1895. Condition is very good. No issues. The artwork is housed under glass in its original frame that has been restored. Overall framed measurements are 15.25 by 17.25 inches. Provenance: A Miami, Florida estate.

William Stanley Haseltine was one of the nineteenth century’s most celebrated expatriates, whose Italian landscapes introduced American audiences to the romance, history, and beauty of the ancient landscape. Born in Philadelphia, Haseltine descended from a rich artistic history of his own: his mother Elizabeth was an amateur painter, his older brother James became a prominent sculptor, and his younger brother Charles established the Haseltine Art Galleries in Philadelphia. William was the most promising artistic talent, and he pursued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University before returning to Philadelphia to train under the German artist Paul Weber. He accompanied Weber to Dusseldorf soon after, remaining in the artist’s colony from 1854-1858. There, Haseltine honed his painterly technique and began to explore the European continent. He traveled to Italy in 1856, accompanying Albert Bierstadt, Emanuel Leutze, and Worthington Whittredge on a sketching trip from the Rhine to the Roman Campagna.

Back in the United States, Hasletine joined Bierstadt, Leutze, and Whittredge in New York’s Tenth Street Studio Building, the center of the Hudson River School and the American art world. He didn’t stay long. Haseltine returned to Europe in 1866, spending three years in Paris before settling permanently in Rome. His romantic evocations of Italy’s historic ruins and peaceful coasts drew patrons from there and abroad. Distinguished by their rich colors and precisely-rendered forms, Haseltine’s Italian scenes combine sentiment and strength—emotion filtered through a steady gaze.

Haseltine continued to exhibit his work at the Paris Salon, the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Art Association, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until just before the turn of the century. Today, his paintings are featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.