Pietro Longhi
The Display of the Elephant

ArtistItalian (Venetian), 1701–1785
CultureItalian
Titles
  • The Display of the Elephant
  • "True Portrait of the Elephant"
PlaceItaly
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFrame (outer): 22 1/2 × 27 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (57.2 × 70.5 × 3.8 cm)
Frame (inner): 19 × 23 3/4 in. (48.3 × 60.3 cm)
Credit LineSarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Object numberBF.1980.3
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
217 Blaffer Galleries
On view

Explore Further

Object Type
ProvenanceAndrea Dolfin Valier, Venice; Rawdon Brown, by whom offered; [Christie’s, London, May 30, 1884, lot 185]; private collection, possibly Paris; David Hargreaves, Paris; [P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London]; purchased by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 1980.
Exhibition History"Venetian Painting from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation," Milwaukee Art Museum, September 14–November 25, 2001.

Old Jail Art Center, Abeline, Texas, February 13–April 15, 2002; Ellen Noël Museum, Odessa, Texas, April 16–June 17, 2002.

"Venice in Canaletto's Age," The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, October 8, 2009–January 10, 2010; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, February 13–May 9, 2010.

"Two-Eyed Seeing: Contemporary Pasts and Futures at the Blaffer Art Museum," Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, December 9–December 17, 2023. (OL.1658)
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed upper left: Vero Ritratto del Elefante / Condotto a Venezia a. o 1774 / Dipinto da Pietro Longhi / Per S.P.Z. Andrea Dolfin Valier

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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