Photographs: ‘Venice Views’ by Fratelli Gajo c. 1880s

June 2022

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Castelo canal with a view of the Church of San Geremia 
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

I bought this album of 30 hand-coloured albumen prints by Fratelli Gajo together with numerous other black and white albumen prints at auction. Unfortunately the album had no cover but to save it for prosperity I had it rebound in leather at one of the only bookbinders left in Melbourne: White’s Law Bindery. They did a superb job.

I cannot find out anything about the Venetian photographer Fratelli Gajo except the address of his business. No dates, no bibliographic information.

What I do know is that these hand-coloured photographs are rare and exceptionally beautiful. They add an early chapter to the story of hand-coloured photography, which stretches from daguerreotypes, albumen prints, and silver gelatin prints to hand-coloured digital photographs with an equally varied subject matter – aerial photographs, landscapes, portraits, bodies, social documentary photographs and architectural renderings to name but a few.

The photographs in the posting are in the order they appear in the album. I have interleaved the albumen photographs with historical and contemporary images giving us a vista of Venice through time. Enjoy.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
153 Rivo delle Maravege
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [The Doges’ Palace and the Piazzetta]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
89 Venezia – Palazzo Ferry, Grand Hotel
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Wolfgang Moroder
Palazzo Ferro Fini in Venice. Facade on Grand Canal
18 April 2016
CC BY-SA 3.0

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
680 Venezia
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [St Mark’s Basilica]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Francesco Guardi (Italy, 1712-1793)
The Piazza San Marco, Venice (installation views)
c. 1770-1775
Oil on canvas
55.2 x 85.4cm
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the Scottish National Gallery, 1978
© Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland
Photos: © Marcus Bunyan and the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Canale grande verso Rialto
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768)
Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi towards the Rialto
Between 1720 and 1723
Oil on canvas
Height: 144cm (56.6 in)
Width: 207cm (81.4 in)
Museum of 18th-century Venice
Public domain

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Bridge of Sighs]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
After the painting by A. Paoletti, Venezia
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (Venezia, 1834-1912)
A Venetian ice cream seller
Nd
Oil on canvas
50.2 x 74.9cm (19.8 x 29.5 in.)

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [The Courtyard of the Doge’s Palace looking towards the Torricella]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
No. 5 Piazza S. Marco dai Leoni
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
13 Libreria e Loggetto
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
35. Venezia – Porta del P. Ducale detta della Carta
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Jean-Pol Grandmont
The Porta della Carta of the Doges Palace on Piazzetta San Marco in Venice
1 June 2013
CC BY-SA 4.0

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
230 [Interior of the Doges Palace]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Torre dell’Orologio, Piazza san Marco, Venice

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
101. Torre del Orologio
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
141. Venezia Chiesa della Salute
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Walter Richard Sickert (British, 1860-1942)
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
c. 1901
Oil on canvas
56 x 46cm
Royal Academy of Arts

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
65 Monumento Collooni
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Federico Moja (Italian, 1802-1885)
Venice, a View of the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, with the Equestrian Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni and the Scuola Grande di San Marco in the Background
1848
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 74.5 by 104.5cm
Framed: 89 by 118.5cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
No. 30 Rivo di Canonica
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Entry to the presbytery of St Mark’s Basilica]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Bridge of Sighs]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
58. Rio S. Agostino
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Didier Descouens
Rio di S. Agostino seen from the S. Agostino Bridge in Venice
11 May 2015
CC BY-SA 4.0

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Torre del Orologio]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [The Doge’s Palace]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26 cm
Support: 27 x 36 cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
87 Venezia – Palazzo Contarini Fasan
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Wolfgang Moroder
Palazzo Contarini Fasan in Venice. Facade on Grand Canal
31 July 2010
CC BY-SA 4.0

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Venezia – Palazzo Pisaro
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
100. Venezia – Palazzo Rezzonico
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Didier Descouens
Ca ‘Rezzonico, Venice facade of Giorgio Massari on the Grand Canal
7 May 2012
CC BY-SA 4.0

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Statue of King Vittorio Emanuel II by the sculptor Ettore Ferrari 1887]
c. 1887
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Didier Descouens
The main gate at the Venetian Arsenal
9 May 2012
CC BY-SA 4.0

The so-called “Solid ground entrance” of the Arsenale in Venice was built between 1692 and 1694 on a project by Alessandro Tremignon. Eight standing figures on pedestals on the ground: At the front row: from left to right: La Giustizia by Giovanni Antonio Comino, Marte by Giovanni Antonio Comino, Nettuno by Giovanni Antonio Comino, Bellona by Francesco Cabianca At the the second and the third rows: L’Abbondanza by Francesco Cabianca (last row on the right), La Vigilanza by Francesco Cabianca (second row on the right), Two more Allegorical statues by Giovanni Antonio Comino, (second and third row on the left)

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
157 33 Arsenale
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Keystone View Company (American, Manufacturers and Publishers)
The Rialto Bridge, Venice
1929
Stereograph print on card mount
Mount: 9 x 18cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled [Rialto Bridge]
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
211. Bis- Venezia – Chiesa S. Marco – Interno (Interior of the San Marco Church)
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

Fratelli Gajo – Piazza S.Marco 139 – Venezia
Untitled
1880s
Hand-coloured albumen print mounted on cardboard
Image: 20 x 26cm
Support: 27 x 36cm

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