Watercolour and gouache on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/arthur-melville-375" aria-label="More by Arthur Melville" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Arthur Melville</a>
Blue Night Venice
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
adults
architecture
bell tower
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
figure
Italy
night
people
places
religious
square
times of the day
townscapes / man-made features
Venice, Piazza San Marco
<p>Arthur Melville travelled to Venice in 1894. The city had long been a favourite subject for painters, but Melville found something new. <span>The Blue Night </span>shows St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace and the Campanile dissolving into the dusk.<span> </span></p><p>Melville evolved a new watercolour method. He saturated the paper with Chinese white paint and used sponges to create a velvet-like texture. Before applying the paint, he tried out ideas on pieces of glass held over the painting. Colour, such as the blue used here, drew attention not just to the subject of the work, but to the medium itself.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2013</em></p>
paper unique watercolour gouache board
16 February 2011 – 21 August 2011
2011-08-21
16 February 2011 – 21 August 2011
2011-08-21
2011-02-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-02-16
Watercolour
Exhibition
3 May 2013 – 29 March 2015
2015-03-29
3 May 2013 – 29 March 2015
2015-03-29
2013-05-03
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-03
Gallery 8
Collection based display
10 October 2015 – 17 January 2016
2016-01-17
10 October 2015 – 17 January 2016
2016-01-17
2015-10-10
Scottish National Gallery (Edinburgh, UK)
2015-10-10
Arthur Melville
Loan-out
19 March 2022 – 13 August 2022
2022-08-13
19 March 2022 – 13 August 2022
2022-08-13
2022-03-19
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2022-03-19
Liquid Light: Painting in Watercolours
Loan-out
The Blue Night, Venice
support: 864 × 610 mm
frame: 1210 × 952 × 30
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
<div class="text">
<p>Arthur Melville travelled to Venice in 1894. The city had long been a favourite subject for painters, but Melville found something new. <i>The Blue Night </i>shows St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace and the Campanile dissolving into the dusk.<i> </i>
</p>
<p>Melville evolved a new watercolour method. He saturated the paper with Chinese white paint and used sponges to create a velvet-like texture. Before applying the paint, he tried out ideas on pieces of glass held over the painting. Colour, such as the blue used here, drew attention not just to the subject of the work, but to the medium itself.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2013-10-29T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05067</b> THE BLUE NIGHT, VENICE 1897</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Arthur Melville. 97.’ b.l.
<br/>Watercolour, 34×24 (86×61).
<br/>Presented by W. Graham Robertson, 1940.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Mrs Arthur Melville; W. Graham Robertson, 1906.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.W.S., 1898 (118), as ‘A Venetian Night’; R.S.A., 1905 (69); R.I., 1906 (49), Newcastle, 1906 (47), Nottingham, 1907 (11), and Dublin 1907 (454); <i>Franco-British Exhibition</i>, Fine Arts Palace, Shepherd's Bush, 1908 (448).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> T. Martin Wood, ‘The Art of the late Arthur Melville, R.W.S., A.R.S.A.’ in <i>Studio</i>, XXXVII, 1906, p.288; Feddon and Long, 1924, pp.44 and 59; W. Graham Robertson, <i>Time Was</i>, 1931, p.284; Mackay, 1951, pp.107, 117 and 127.</p>
<p>A nocturnal impression of the Piazza San Marco, Venice.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture bell tower cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents figure Italy night people places religious square times of the day townscapes / man-made features Venice, Piazza San Marco