Giovanni Antonio
Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768) better known as Canaletto was
an Italian painter of city views or vedute, of Venice. (A
veduta, Italian for “view”; plural vedute, is a highly
detailed, usually large-scale painting, or, more often print, of a cityscape or
some other vista. The painters of vedute are referred
to as vedutisti.
Canaletto also painted imaginary views (referred
to as capricci), although the demarcation in his works between the real and the
imaginary is never quite clear. (In painting,
a capriccio, plural: capricci; in older English works often anglicised as “caprice” means an
architectural fantasy, placing together buildings, archaeological ruins and
other architectural elements in fictional and often fantastical combinations,
and may include staffage (figures). It falls under the more general term of
landscape painting. The term is also used for other artworks with an element of
fantasy.
He
was an important printmaker who used the etching technique. In the period from
1746 to 1756 he worked in England where he created many sights of London. He
was highly successful in England, thanks to the British merchant and
connoisseur Joseph Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto’s works was sold
to King George III in 1762.
London: The Thames from Somerset
House Terrace towards the City (1750-51) Oil
on canvas
Canaletto
arrived in London in 1746 and remained there for most of the next nine years.
This painting is a pendant to a view in the opposite direction, towards
Westminster. This pair was the last by Canaletto, and the only English views to
be acquired by Canaletto's great friend and patron, Joseph Smith, who was
British Consul in Venice. They are on a Venetian type of canvas with a russet
ground rather than the light grey that the artist used for most of his English
paintings. This suggests that Canaletto painted them when he returned to Venice
briefly in 1750-1. The view is not based on the drawing, but on a slightly
different view now in the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery. Canaletto
adjusted the composition to suit the much grander scale of the painting.
The
view is taken from the Terrace of Old Somerset House. Its New Gallery facing
the river had been built in 1661-61 for Henrietta Maria, the Queen Mother and
was perhaps designed by Inigo Jones. The building was subsequently the home of
the Royal Academy, and part of it is now occupied by the Courtauld Institute of
Art. The skyline is dominated by St Paul’s Cathedral, completed in 1709.
Canaletto altered the dome so that it is viewed from slightly below, magnifying
its powerful presence. Beyond it stretches a horizon dominated by the steeples
of the City churches, largely built by Christopher Wren following the Great
Fire of 1666. At the right is visible the Monument to the Fire, erected in
1671-77, Old London Bridge with its houses which were demolished in 1757, and
part of the south bank.
The pair of views relates not only to Canaletto’s Venetian scenes, but also to the long tradition of topographical views of London dating back to the 1600s. Earlier engraved prospects of London were usually printed on several sheets to include the whole riverside from Westminster to the Tower. During the last century artists had chosen to depict the city stretched out in a line from a bird’s eye view over the south bank. Canaletto adopted a high viewpoint for his earlier views of the river but brought the viewpoint almost to ground level here. The great curve of the river dominates the composition, which also manages to include all the principal features to be seen from the terrace of Somerset House. When the two views are placed side by side they create a long panoramic view of the curve of the river, the equivalent on the Thames of Canaletto's wide-angled views of the Bacino in Venice.
