Provenance:Sotheby's, New York, sale of April 10, 1987. Sotheby's, New York, sale of May 8, 2008.Sotheby's, New York, sale of February 12, 2009. Acquired directly from the above sale.Private Collection, New York, New York.Literature:Antoine Laurentin, Ferdinand du Puigaudeau, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Vol. II, Paris, 2023, no. II-82, p. 98 (illustrated).Lot Essay:Born in Nantes into a family of shipowners and sailors, Ferdinand du Puigaudeau was destined to capture the ever-changing moods of the sea. Eschewing formal training at the École des Beaux-Arts, he honed his artistic eye during extensive travels across Europe, as well as in Tunisia and Sweden, where he developed his distinctive pointillist style.In 1904, Puigaudeau returned to Venice, a city that had long fascinated him. During this visit, and before permanently settling in Brittany, he produced nearly fifty works, portraying La Sérénissime from every possible perspective, by moonlight, beneath fireworks, along the Grand Canal etc. Venice stimulated Puigaudeau's skills and sensitivity as both a painter and a poet of atmosphere. On canvas, he transformed the city into a luminous symphony of light, color, and reflection.The present work offers a more contemplative and unusual view: rather than focusing on the heart of Venice, Puigaudeau here turns his gaze outward to the quiet islet of San Michele, en route to Murano (a glimpse of which can be seen in the horizon). Rendered in delicate, shimmering dots of color, the painting exemplifies Puigaudeau’s mastery of the pointillist technique, and straining application to depicting the effects of light. Bathed in diffused, pearlescent light, the water glows with broken reflections, like a mosaic composed of millions of blue, silver, and soft lavender tiles, thus creating an atmosphere that feels both ethereal and hypnotic. The sunlit façade of the 10th-century Church of San Michele in Isola glows with subtle warmth, anchored by its soaring 130-foot campanile. The striking lavender sail to the left, catching the wind mid-passage, seems to embody the transience of life and the passage of time—a poignant counterpoint to the somber stillness of the cypress trees at center right, which signal the presence of the island’s famed cemetery, eternal resting place of cultural giants such as Stravinsky and Diaghilev.