Canaletto and Guardi's Venice
Canaletto and Francesco Guardi painted eighteenth-century Venice for visitors who wanted to take the city home with them, and they saw it in very different ways.
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About the series
Canaletto's views of the Grand Canal, the Molo and Piazza San Marco are clear and exact, built up from careful drawings, with every window and mooring post in place. Many were bought by English travellers on the Grand Tour, often through Joseph Smith, the British consul in Venice, which is why so many hang in British collections today.
Guardi worked a generation later with a looser, flickering brush. His lagoon is grey and full of air, his figures are a few quick touches, and his gondolas look as if they are moving. He also painted the city's ceremonies, among them the doge leaving on the Bucintoro for the Feast of the Ascension, part of a set of festival scenes based on Canaletto's designs.
Canaletto's wide canal views can fill a long wall. Guardi's smaller, softer canvases are better seen up close.
