The Square of Saint Mark’s, Venice

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, was the greatest of the Venetian view painters, and for much of his career he worked for the stream of English travellers who came to Venice on the Grand Tour and wanted a record of the city to carry home; his principal patron was Joseph Smith, the British consul at Venice, through whom a large part of his output passed to George III. This canvas belongs to the mature views of the early 1740s, when the firm perspective construction of his earlier work gave way to a freer handling of paint and a wider range of light, and it takes as its subject the great civic square at the heart of the city. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.