From The Wallace Collection website:

Although Canaletto’s views were essentially topographically accurate, he used some artistic licence to make his compositions more appealing to tourists. Canaletto would thus idealise his native city to create prospects which sometimes surpassed reality and included as many tourist sites as possible. A good example is found in this painting, where the artist squeezed the Dogana in the left foreground and changed the Library’s actual position in order to include both in the same composition. 

This painting, together with its pendant (P497), form a pair of two large views which show the Bacino di San Marco from opposite vantage points; Canaletto often depicted famous places in Venice from opposite views. P499 looks towards the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, in the distance on the right, with the Riva degli Schiavoni in the background. The Dogana da Mar, the customs house, frames the composition on the left. Its low tower is crowned by a bronze sculpture of two male nudes supporting a gilded globe, topped by an allegorical figure of Fortune holding a sail reflecting Venice’s maritime trade. 

Both P499 and P497 were acquired by the 1st Marquess of Hertford at an unknown date, probably as a reminder of the Grand Tour he undertook in 1738-9.

The conservation of Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from the Canale della Giudecca was made possible in 2017 by the generous support of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: about 1735 – 1744

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 500
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From The Wallace Collection website:

One of a pair of unusually large views, depicting the Bacino di San Marco from opposing vantage points. This painting, which complements P499, appears to be an exact view of the Bacino di San Marco with the church of Santa Maria della Salute, from the steps of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore. It is however a clever composite image of several viewpoints within the courtyard of that church, and includes several campanili (bell towers) of churches that cannot be seen from that vantage point. The figures in the foreground represent different levels of Venetian society; from the seated beggar on the left, the merchants in the centre, and the priest and lawyer engaged in conversation on the right. There is the customary assortment of sea vessels in the picture, including a burchiello, or passenger boat, being towed in the middle ground. This is a superb example of Canaletto’s attention to composition. The triangle of the foreground terrace – framed by the temporarily-docked burchiello with the detail of passengers embarking – is matched by the boat in the middle of the painting. Its two masts are in turn replicated in the vertical soar of the Campanile di San Marco and the dome of Santa Maria della Salute. The boats are gently balanced in the lagoon and the whole composition is again framed, on the left hand side, by the profile of a vessel with its sail blowing towards the city. The bell tower of the church of Santa Maria della Carità is visible behind the golden globe of the Dogana at the centre left. The tower collapsed in March 1744: the two pictures can thus be dated c. 1735-44.

It is an attractive, clearly identifiable view of a type calculated to appeal to the Grand Tourist, with picturesque elements of local colour reinforcing the idea of Venice as an exciting cosmopolitan centre. Acquired at an unknown date by the 1st Marquess of Hertford, who went on the Grand Tour (he was recorded in Rome in 1738 and Genoa in 1739).

The conservation of Venice: The Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore was made possible in 2017 by the generous support of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: about 1735 – 1744

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From The Wallace Collection website:

The promenade or Riva degli Schiavoni depicts a view still familiar today, with its gondolas bobbing on the water before the Doge’s Palace, one of the best-known buildings in Venice, on the left. The columns of San Todaro and of the Lion of Saint Mark stand on the Piazzetta in front of the Palace, with the Ponte della Paglia and the Prison beyond. This view, along with its pendant (P516), were very popular with Canaletto’s patrons: they were engraved in 1742 by Visentini, and at least five other sets are known.

The conservation of P509 and P516 has been funded thanks to the 136 donors who gave through Art Happens, Art Fund’s crowd-funding platform. Artfund.org/arthappens

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: about 1740 – 1745

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 500
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From The Wallace Collection website:

The colourful festivals were one of the principal tourist attractions in eighteenth-century Venice, and provided some of Canaletto’s most popular subject matter. The picture depicts one of the rowing races for one-oared gondolas which took place during the annual carnival. The course ran the length of the Grand Canal from the Motta di Sant’ Antonio (today the public gardens) to the Ponte della Croce and then back to the Volta di Canal, seen here. The winner was presented with coloured flags beneath the macchina, a temporary structure, here shown bearing the arms of Alvise Pisani (Doge 1735-41) on the extreme left of the canvas. The composition was engraved by Visentini in 1735, and at least six autograph and six studio versions are known. The picture is generally considered a studio replica and has been twinned with P500 since the late eighteenth century.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768), studio of
Date: about 1746 – 1760

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 500
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From The Wallace Collection website:

P506 depicts the upper reaches of the Grand Canal, looking east, with the Palazzo Flangini on the extreme left. On the opposite side of the canal is the Riva di Biasio with the Palazzo Zen and the Palazzo Bembo. The view was popular and exists in a number of versions by Canaletto and his studio: the prime version, engraved by Visentini in 1742, is in the Getty Museum (acquired in 2003). This painting is of almost the same dimensions as the Getty painting, although the boats and figures are different.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: about 1740 – 1750

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From The Wallace Collection website:

The second picture in the pair with P507 depicts q popular view of the Grand Canal looking north to the Rialto Bridge, with, on the left, the Fondamenta del Vin, and on the right, the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin. This area served as the commercial heart of Venice. Both views survive in numerous versions. For an alternative handling of the view, cf. Guardi P508.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: about 1740 – 1750

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 250
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.

To the left is the winning post, a floating island which holds the prize-winners’ flags. It was specially constructed each year to a different design. The design of this (unknown) year is a ruined temple.

Provenance: Purchased with assistance from The National Art Collections Fund, V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: c. 1730

Image Details
Date: 12 May 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 160
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Various ambassadorial gondolas are in attendance. The gondola in the foreground carries the French Royal arms. This may suggest that the painting was commissioned by the French Ambassador to Venice, Jacques-Vincent Languet, Comte de Gergy (1667-1734).

Provenance: Purchased with assistance from The National Art Collections Fund, V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal “Canaletto” (1697-1768)
Date: c. 1730

Image Details
Date: 12 May 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 250
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Until the late 1720s Canaletto painted in a romantic manner, with a dark tonality and sketchy brushwork.

He elongated the proportions of buildings and figures for dramatic effect.

Provenance: Presented by Chambers Hall, 1855

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768)
Date: Unknown

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.