Marcel Gatteaux, Venice, 2004

Marcel Gatteaux (born London, 1962) studied at Camberwell School of Art and trained as a picture restorer before turning fully to painting. His work is warm in colour and loose in handling, with a clear debt to Van Gogh and Matisse. He is best known for scenes of Provence, Italy and Greece.

Here he looks across the lagoon to the Campanile of St Mark's, with gondolas moored between painted poles in the foreground. The paint is laid on thickly and quickly, the turquoise water broken into short strokes that catch the light.

Oil. Signed lower right ‘M. Gatteaux’. Inscribed on the reverse ‘Venice, Marcel Gatteaux 2004’, with the label of Caelt Gallery, Westbourne Grove, London, where the artist worked and exhibited. In a deep silvered frame with a cream slip.