Between pen and palette : the image(s) of Venice in the work of F. Hopkinson Smith

The aim of this work is to examine the image of Venice in the works of Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915), especially in his most extensive work on Venice, the illustrated travelogue 'Venice of To-Day' which was published in 1895. An engineer, a painter and a writer, Smith was a popular figure in the cultural landscape of nineteenth century America, and like many other American artists he fell under the spell of the 'Queen of the Adriatic'. For more than twenty years, Smith spent every summer in Venice, painting an impressive numbers of Venetian views, mostly watercolors and charcoals, which he would display (and then sell) in highly successful exhibitions in the United States. Nineteenth century American culture viewed Venice as the exotic place 'par excellence', a place where the presence of the past could be fully perceive and which represented the quintessential essence of the picturesque. On the one hand, Smith's representation of Venice was widely influenced by the interpretative conventions of the culture he belonged to, but on the other hand, as the title of his travelogue suggests, he tried to offer a fresher and more authentic view of a city, which had to face the changes brought by modernity. Through the magnifying lens of Smith's writings and watercolors representing Venice, we are given the possibility to explore the way in which American culture perceived and represented this peculiar city both as a real place and an imaginary one.