I recently visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection while on holiday in Venice, Italy. I had no knowledge of the storied past of the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, who’s story began in about 1750, long before Ms. Guggenheim became its final occupant.
Peggy Guggenheim’s collection is a must see for fans of Modern Art, and is also one of Venice’s most visited attractions. Situated on the Grand Canal near the Lagoon, the former residence features amazing views of the canal and other palazzos. And most important, is the collection itself. It’s noted as ‘one of the most important museums in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th Century’. Pieces in her collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, and are born out of personal connections from the artists themselves.
As a champion of artists, she created an American outpost for the European avant-gard, with a gallery in New York called Art of This Century, in 1942. Prior to that she had a short lived gallery in London during the lates 1930’s, Guggenheim Jeune. Her initial collection, acquired at a rate of one painting per day on frenzied trips to Paris during World War II, cost her only $40,000 for a group of works by Brancusi, Geroges Braque, Salvador Dali, Ernst, Fernand Leger and Pable Picasso, among others. That collection ultimately settled in Venice in 1948, with its initial exhibition at the biennale.
With the acquisition of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Ms. Guggenheim set up shop as one of the city’s most celebrated patrons and eccentrics. That said, she was actually the third woman to own the Palazzo, preceded by the Marchesa Luisa Casati and Doris Castlerosse. Christies has a fantastic article titled: Ghosts of the unfinished palazzo, which you can read HERE. A little FYI, the palazzo might be named for the yawning lion heads seen below… at least that’s one of the theories.
