Canaletto: 12 works

'Canaletto, one of the foremost vedute painters, here animates the entrance to Venice with cargo boats and gondolas that lead the eye back to precisely rendered buildings along the shore.'

'In the 18th century, Canaletto made it one of the main tools used by landscape painters.'

'This early work, which nonetheless displays the most outstanding features of his style, depicts the most famous square in Venice from a high viewpoint, thus ensuring a broader frame for the composition.'

'The painting is a masterpiece from Canaletto's early oeuvre. He was able to amass his first experiences through his father, a set design painter.'

'In this painting from the collection of the Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore, Canaletto depicts one of his most popular views of Venice----the Molo, a wharf just west of the Doge's Palace.'

'In the early 1740s, Canaletto turned to the previously unexplored medium of etching and produced a series of 30 works, the title of which states: "Views, some representing actual sites, others imaginary."'

'The painting is an excellent example of the Venetian veduta, characterized by the integration of natural and architectural elements into a scenic whole, a genre of which Canaletto was one of the finest interpreters.'

'When the two views are placed side by side they create a long panoramic view of the curve of the river, the equivalent on the Thames of Canaletto's wide-angled views of the Bacino in Venice.'

'When travel became difficult for the English Grand Tourists, and demand for his work in Venice fell off, Canaletto came to England in 1746. He stayed for nine years.'

'The drawing is commonly supposed to be late, of around 1760; it displays the strong perspective of, for instance, the drawing that corresponds with Canaletto's reception painting of 1765 for the Accademia, and shares with that sheet such incidental details as the decorated neoclassical vases sprouting a few straggly leaves. It is however richer in effect, with more variation in touch, than the rather monotonous lines of many of Canaletto's certainly late drawings (such as the set of Feste Ducali); it shares the style and mannerisms of the capricci catalogued above, differing only in scale and ambition.'

'During recent conservation an inscription on the back of the canvas was revealed, confirming the date: 'Io, Antonio Canal, detto il Canalletto (sic), fecit - 1760' ('I, Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, made this - 1760').'

'He also produced such fanciful views, or "capricci," as this one, which combine reality with imaginary elements.'