Fish Market in Venice

Ettore Tito · 1887
Oil on canvas
Rome, Italy - Galleria d’Arte Moderna
LDA · XXIV · MMXXV

Source
Book · Realismo e Verismo nella Pittura Italiana dell’Ottocento di Corrado Maltese · Fratelli Fabbri Editori · 1967 · p. 59

The painting depicts a crowded Venetian fish market with close proximity between vendors, customers and produce, reflecting Italian verismo’s focus on everyday labour rather than staged genre scenes. Tito arranges the figures without a central protagonist, emphasising collective work over individual character. Spatial compression, overlapping bodies and tilted viewpoints mimic the sensory density of the marketplace rather than offering a single focal perspective. The vivid depiction of fish, baskets and tools underscores the material economy of Venice rather than an idealised image of the city. The painting exemplifies late-19th-century interest in documenting urban labour as a defining cultural subject.

Reposting welcome; please credit Libreria d’Arte - Studio Soli.

Detail
Fish baskets - the heaped containers placed at multiple heights foreground the commercial structure of the scene, signalling the market’s organisation through goods rather than through social hierarchy.