News & Stories

An important collection of 45 drawings by Pietro Longhi (1701–1785) from the Museo Correr in Venice will soon be treated for conservation thanks to a generous gift from the Mary Ryan and John H. Wilson II Fund at the North Texas Community Foundation in memory of Robert Willson and Margaret Pace Willson. We asked supporters John Wilson and his wife Annasue McCleave Wilson to share the story behind this special restoration sponsorship.

How did you become involved with Save Venice?
Annasue and I came to know Save Venice by the mid 1980s, when we made several visits to the city with my great-uncle, the glass sculptor Robert Willson (with 2 Ls), who had been making art there since the 1950s, and his artist-wife, Margaret, who in an earlier life created Pace’s Picante Sauce. While living in London during my PhD work at the Courtauld Institute in the mid 1980s we made visits whenever Bob was in residence making glass on Murano. We had the luxury of watching him work, and wandering the city—on our own and with Margaret (who was constantly sketching)—exploring the museums, churches and cultural sites, as well as meeting the Anglo-American expatriate community.

Why were you inspired by the Pietro Longhi drawings in particular?
Because of the importance of Venetian art to the British, my PhD thesis on the 18th century English artist John Hoppner looks primarily to the Golden Age of Titian as a model for artists. But the work of Pietro Longhi has long attracted both of us because of the artist’s attention to the details of everyday life in bourgeois settecento Venice. Annasue used his paintings to help describe her characters’ lives in some of her fiction. To an art historian like me, Longhi’s genre paintings are larger compliments to the staffage in Canaletto’s or Guardi’s vedute. His attention to the details of life in Venice, from making polenta to receiving the Sacraments (and quite a lot in between), are more than merely charming, they’re exploratory and poetic.

Why does preservation matter to you, personally and generally?
Preservation, whether it’s artistic, culinary, or anything in between, is crucial for living. We preserve what we value and it’s almost innate in us to want to preserve functional things, which are even more special if they’ve been decorated. For Annasue and me, preserving the great artistic creations of the past gives us a tangible connection to these extraordinary artists and architects and a window into their minds.