Canaletto

Canal, Giovanni Antonio

Venetian, 1697 - 1768

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Italian painter of landscapes (1697–1768)

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Canaletto, Ascension Day Festival at Venice, 1765/1766, pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite, tip of the brush with black wash, heightened with a few touches of white gouache (laid on thick eighteenth-century paper), Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.5

Ascension Day Festival at Venice

Canaletto · 1765/1766 · pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite, tip of the brush with black wash, heightened with a few touches of white gouache (laid on thick eighteenth-century paper) ·  Accession ID  1963.15.5

Canaletto, The "Giovedì Grasso" Festival before the Ducal Palace in Venice, 1765/1766, pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite, tip of the brush with black wash, heightened with touches of white gouache (laid on thick eighteenth-century mount), Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Paul Mellon Fund, 2007.111.55

The "Giovedì Grasso" Festival before the Ducal Palace in Venice

Canaletto · 1765/1766 · pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite, tip of the brush with black wash, heightened with touches of white gouache (laid on thick eighteenth-century mount) ·  Accession ID  2007.111.55

Canaletto, A Venetian Courtyard, in the Procuratie Nuove, c. 1760, pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite on laid paper, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.21.1

A Venetian Courtyard, in the Procuratie Nuove

Canaletto · c. 1760 · pen and brown ink with gray wash over traces of graphite on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1990.21.1

We look slightly down across a sun-drenched plaza with people scattered among ruins, buildings, and around a free-standing column in this vertical landscape painting. The people we can see have light skin. Towering trees with celery, sage, and forest-green leaves frame a small plaza paved with flax-colored stones. A tree to our right almost reaches the top of the painting, and a shorter tree in front of it has toppled onto the plaza. To our left, in the lower corner, a man sits behind a shadowy balustrade, looking down. In the lower center of the painting, a man walks toward us, holding a basket over one arm and dead poultry in the other hand, and a dog sits nearby. Slightly farther back is a tall stone column with a door in its base and a statue on top. A woman wearing a red shirt and blue skirt sits on a step in front of the door. Along the left side, the plaza gives way to a tree-lined, dirt road that meanders toward a stone arch in the middle distance, and to a cluster of low buildings beyond. Two towers catch the light, one with a slate-blue dome and the other with a peach-colored steeple. Farther back from the buildings is a dark line of trees at the base of a steep green hill dotted with groves of trees, which rises high over the plaza below. Another building complex, glowing in warm tones of straw yellow, sits at its top. Small dots of red, white, and blue suggest a handful of people making their way up the hill’s wide path. A river with moss-green water pouring over a dam extends from the lower right corner into the distance along the right edge of the painting. Near the column, a man fishes at the water’s edge. The water winds back to a row of silvery-gray buildings in the far distance. Several people in red, yellow, or white, tiny in scale, dot the riverbanks and cross the bridge. A screen of thin, pale pink clouds float across the light blue sky.
Canaletto, English Landscape Capriccio with a Column, c. 1754, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1964.2.1

English Landscape Capriccio with a Column

Canaletto · c. 1754 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1964.2.1

Sun pours across a landscape with trees and plants growing around and on an arched stone ruin, a bridge and river, and, in the distance, buildings along a flat-topped hill carpeted with grass in this vertical painting. Tiny in scale in the landscape, about two dozen men, women, and children wear dresses and clothing in shades of tan, brown, turquoise, cream white, black, red, and mustard yellow. Close to us, the arched ruins, possibly of an aqueduct, are nearly hidden by tall trees, bushes, and growth hanging from its deck. The trees growing up in front of the ruins nearly span the height of the painting and take up most of the left half of the composition. A river winds from the lower right corner into the distance to our right, passing under a bridge in the middle distance on the right edge of the painting. The shallowly arched bridge crosses the river in front of a long block of a building with rows of windows and arched arcades. The flat-topped hill rises in the center distance. There, a freestanding arch could be another ruin. Buildings with brown walls and terracotta-red roofs, along with the pointed spire of a church, are contained within a town wall a little farther down the hill from the arch. More churches with spires are nestled into the valley to our left of the hill, extending into the distance. The people are scattered through the landscape, and they all have pale skin. Closest to us, a man and woman stand near a black and white dog that barks at a pair of swans in the river, at the bottom center of the composition. A woman nearby bends over a basket on the ground, and a man with a long staff, tucked into the vegetation near the aqueduct, looks on. More people sit, stand, or play by the riverbank closer to the bridge or look at the water from the bridge itself. On the river is an elaborately decorated, long, narrow boat like a gondola. One person in the boat props open a yellow and white parasol; another, who rows the boat, wears a blue and yellow outfit with a cap like an overturned flower blossom. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition and the sky above is brilliant topaz blue.
Canaletto, English Landscape Capriccio with a Palace, c. 1754, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1964.2.2

English Landscape Capriccio with a Palace

Canaletto · c. 1754 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1964.2.2

Canaletto, La libreria. V., in or before 1742, etching, Gift of W.G. Russell Allen, 1941.1.185

La libreria. V.

Canaletto · in or before 1742 · etching ·  Accession ID  1941.1.185

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La libreria. V. [upper left]

Canaletto · in or before 1742 · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1943.3.2710.a

Canaletto, La libreria. V. [upper left], in or before 1742, etching on laid paper, Paul Mellon Collection, 1985.64.151.a

La libreria. V. [upper left]

Canaletto · in or before 1742 · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.151.a

Dozens of men with several women and a few children gather in pairs or small groups across a sun-drenched plaza in front of a domed church next to a long, pale pink building in this horizontal painting. The people’s faces and hands we can see have pale, peachy skin. The men wear hats and shin-length capes or jackets over stockings in tones of charcoal gray, olive green, butterscotch yellow, black, and brown. The women wear black capes covering their heads and long, full skirts. The ash-brown plaza has two zones where geometric patterns are picked out in a lighter, oatmeal brown. Three coral-red flagpoles are spaced along the center of the plaza parallel to the two buildings. Each flagpole rests on an olive-green base about a third of the height of the pole. Tables under open umbrellas clustered around the outer two flagpoles display piles of cloth, and a few people gather around the wares. The domed building extends into the scene from the left edge of the painting, and reaches about a third of the way across as it angles away from us. It has a central portal with nested arches, flanked to each side by a pair of slightly smaller, arched portals. Scenes against gold backgrounds appear in the archway of each of the five doors. There is a second level of arches above. The smaller arches to either side are decorated with more scenes of people against gold backgrounds. Four gold horses stand atop the central, lower arch, each with one front and one back hoof raised. The arch behind them is dim, the back side of a stained-glass window. The stone of the arches and front of the building are light brown. The upper arches are lined with pale, slate-gray spires and curling tracery. The three-story pink building sits close by to our right, extending into the distance on the same angle as the church, and as tall as its neighbor. The lowest level is a series of open, pointed arches. The second level is also a row of arches, but more closely spaced. People walk and stand under both covered walkways. The top half of the building has a carnation-pink façade with seven windows evenly spaced across its width. The central window is surrounded by carved stone ornament. Along the right edge of the painting and closer to us than the large buildings is the corner of a two-story building. The lower level is in shadow under a sloping awning, creating a merchant’s stall, and the second level has a rounded, arched window. One person stands at the front corner of the roof and looks down into the square. In the narrow gap between the row of buildings to our left and the smaller structure to our right is a winged lion atop a tall column. Beyond that is sparkling blue water with several masted ships and long, narrow gondolas. The sky above has thin white clouds against a pale blue sky. The artist signed the lower left, “A.C.F.”
Canaletto, The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice, 1742/1744, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton, 1945.15.3

The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice

Canaletto · 1742/1744 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.15.3

We look slightly down onto a port-side town along a canal, with a church across the water from us in this horizontal landscape painting. A bright blue sky with billowing white, pink, and gray clouds fills the top two-thirds of the painting. Below, a three-masted ship with all but one sail furled is surrounded by a couple dozen black long, low boats, gondolas, and one or two other sailboats. People stand and walk mostly in pairs and trios along the stone walkway under us, which extends into the distance to our right. The women all wear long dresses and most of the men wear suits with knee-length jackets with tails or capes, and hats. The clothing is painted in shades of brick and terracotta red, pine green, royal blue, and gray. The walkway is interrupted by two low walls that partition off an area near us. The angled roofs of stalls line the walkway in the farther distance before it is again interrupted, this time by a two-story, cream-colored building. The walkway continues as a narrower path under an arched arcade on the lower level of that building, alongside the water. On the far side of the canal, to our left and in the distance, a cluster of ivory-white buildings includes a structure with two stone-blue domes. More buildings extend into the deep distance to our left.
Canaletto, Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice, 1742/1744, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton, 1945.15.4

Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice

Canaletto · 1742/1744 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.15.4

Bibliography

1982

  • Bettagno, Alessandro, et. al. Canaletto: Disegni, dipinti, incisioni. Exh. cat. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 1982.

  • Links, J. G. Canaletto. Oxford, 1982.

  • Millar, Oliver, and Charlotte Miller. Canaletto. Exh. cat. The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, 1982.

1985

  • Corboz, André. Canaletto: Una Venezia immaginaria. Catalogue compiled by Anna Tortorelo. 2 vols. Milan, 1985.

1989

  • Baetjer, Katharine, and J. G. Links. Canaletto. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989.

  • Constable, W. G. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768. 1962, 1976. Second edition revised by J. G. Links, reissued with supplement and additional plates. 2 vols. Oxford, 1989.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 23-24.