In 1725, the painter Alessandro Marchesini, who was also the buyer for the Lucchese art collector Stefano Conti, had inquired about buying two more 'views of Venice', when the agent urged him to consider instead the work of "Antonio Canale... it is like Carlevaris, but you can see the sun shining in it." Dario Succi in Canaletto & Visentini, Venezia & Londra. Ed. Dario Succi. Exh. cat., Ca' Pesaro, Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna. [Venice], 1986, p. 237, under no. 20, dates the Harvey series 1730–35 and believes it was probably commissioned by Smith; states that the series was sold en bloc in about 1957 by the trustees of Robert Grenville Harvey but is now dispersed. The Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, with the West End of the Church and the Scuola di San Marco Image Credit: View on the Grand Canal: From the Palazzo Bembo to that of Grimani Calerghi, now Vendramini. From the Woburn Abbey Collection. The influence of Canaletto’s work will be further explored through Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum’s own collection including a beautiful view of Worcester Cathedral by Marlow and works by Paul Sandby, Samuel Prout and Samuel Rowlandson who were all heavily influenced by Canaletto. Worcester’s most famous artist BW Leader will also feature in the exhibition through the inclusion of one of his most famous works February, Fill Dyke – also on loan from Birmingham Museums.

Without the rise of mass tourism, visiting Venice would have remained the privilege of a few aristocrats like that Duke of Bedford. Would we want that? This exhibition conveys what a cultural loss that would be, too. Canaletto is quietly absorbing, at his best, but I found myself longing for Monet’s incandescent paintings of Venice, a city dissolving in light – or the cinematic Venice of Luchino Visconti.

1697–1768

John Russell. "An Assortment of Very-Welcome Summer Guests." New York Times (August 6, 1993), p. C24. This painting is an early example of the subject matter Canaletto turned towards after deciding to give up on theatrical sceneries, though one can see those influences here in this impressive topography. Canaletto's superb mastery of perspective, a technique fostered under the Renaissance tradition of his native Italy, is also in abundant evidence. Indeed, art historian Bożena Anna Kowalczyk attributed his mastery of perspective to his time spent working in the theater: "the precise perspective ad angolo [angled], in keeping with the rules of theatrical scenography [...] governs the arrangement of the buildings in the space, as well as that of the cistern in the foreground." While Canaletto's later paintings and drawings would favor more naturalistic renderings of cityscapes, here we still see a clear foreshadowing of the vedute style for which he would become most well-known. J. G. Links. "A Missing Canaletto Found." Burlington Magazine 109 (July 1967), p. 406, fig. 33 (detail). We can just make out the tiny silhouettes of people crossing over the bridge, while others emerge into the sunlight along the waterfront. Beyond this is an area known as the ghetto, built up high because of the shortage of land. This is where, from the sixteenth century, the Jewish population was forced by decree to live.

Additional support is kindly provided by Sally Engelhard Pingree and The Charles Engelhard Foundation. Old Master & British Paintings: Evening Sale. Sotheby's, London. December 3, 2014, pp. 50, 52, fig. 2 (color), under no. 11. Everett Fahy. "Selected Acquisitions of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987–1991." Burlington Magazine 133 (November 1991), pp. 801, 804, colorpl. VIII.Canaletto's early works remain his most coveted and, according to many authorities, his best. One of his early pieces is The Stonemason's Yard ( c. 1725, the National Gallery, London) which depicts a humble working area of the city. It is regarded one of his finest works, and was presented by Sir George Beaumont in 1823 and 1828. [14] The Piazza San Marco looking towards the Basilica San Marco and the Campanile by Canaletto. From the Woburn Abbey Collection The paintings on display were commissioned in the 1730s by the fourth Duke of Bedford, and are considered the absolute best of Canaletto’s paintings of Venice. Only limited biographical details exist about Giovanni Antonio Canal, the artist better known as Canaletto. His parents, mother Artemisia Barbieri, and father Bernardo Canal (the mononym Canaletto simple means "Little Canal"), were members of an upper-class Venetian society which, according to art historian and Canaletto specialist, Bożena Anna Kowalczyk, included "noblemen and attadini originarii ('original citizens')." Canaletto was in fact proud of his ancestry and would later boast of depicting "the Canal family's coat of arms (a silver shield surmounted by a blue roe) into the works he was especially proud of." Indeed, in seeking to authenticate an unsigned and undated painting gifted to the University of Aberdeen (known only as "Ruins of the Temple") Art Historian John Gash, and leading Canaletto scholar Charles Beddington, were able to authenticate the painting of Roman ruins by this means. As Gash was able to explain, "Occasionally, Canaletto did sign his works but not in this example. However in the middle of the painting is a ruin which displays the coat of arms of his family. It's unlikely someone else would include that, so it acts as a kind of surrogate signature."