Rehs Galleries Inc., a New York gallery specializing in 19th and 20th-century works of art, sells Embarquement sur le quai des Esclavons, Venise, a major painting by the French artist Felix Ziem (1821-1911).

Ziem, who was on an early path to become an architect, took a slight detour and developed into one of the most financially successful French artists during the 19th century. This success afforded him the opportunity to travel and travel he did; visiting numerous cities in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Russia and other countries throughout the European Continent.  It was the time spent in the thriving waterfront cities of Venice and Constantinople that became the source of inspiration for his entire artistic career.

By the twilight of his life, Ziem became concerned with his legacy and in 1905 donated several important paintings to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. In 1908, the city of Martigues dedicated a room in City Hall to his paintings and two years later, the Musée de Ziem in Martigues was inaugurated.  As Ziem entered his ninth decade, his health began to fail, and he died on November 10, 1911 at age ninety.  His funeral was held at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Embarquement sur le quai des Esclavons, Venise, originally sold by Galerie Georges Petit, is a warm and atmospheric view of Venice – an important example of Ziem’s mature style. On January 18, 1918, Walden W. Shaw (the Chicago businessman who, along with John D. Hertz, established one of the early taxi cab companies) acquired the painting from Moulton & Ricketts of Chicago.

In 2018, just over 100 years after Mr. Shaw acquired the work, a representative for Walden Shaw’s descendant contacted Rehs Galleries about selling the painting. Howard Rehs stated that “I was blown away when I received the initial images. Throughout my career, I have seen numerous paintings by Ziem and this was among the largest and finest. We were honored to have the opportunity to acquire this incredible, fresh-to-the-market, work of art.”

The painting did not last very long.  In fact, it sold with just one email; the gallery never even had the opportunity to publicly exhibit it. Mr. Rehs commented that “this is another example of the strong interest generated by great quality 19th century paintings.”

For more information, visit https://www.rehs.com or call Howard Rehs at (212) 355-5710

About Rehs Galleries, Inc.

Rehs Galleries Inc. is, along with its principals, considered one of the world’s leading dealers of 19th and early 20th-century European paintings and is currently involved in the catalogue raisonné research projects for Daniel Ridgway Knight, Julien Dupré, Emile Munier, and Antoine Blanchard.  Howard Rehs was a past president of the Fine Art Dealers Association, is currently on the Board of the Antiques Council, and has been a member of the Internal Revenue Service’s Art Advisory Panel since 2008.