20th Century Continental School ‘Gondolas, Venice’

This reads as a Dutch signature but not an artist I can find. In feel it is more of a French style, lots of texture and colour, not what I equate with the rather austere aesthetic of traditional Dutch painting.

I bought this because I liked the obvious joie de vivre with which it is painted. The excitement, noise and colour of a regatta in the Grand Canal is there in every slide of the palette knife. 

This is one of the finest frames in the auction - I originally bought the painting unframed and really went to town on the presentation.