Additional Images

Provenance:

Ex. Coll. of Canadian artist John Hammond (1843-1939);
By descent in the family

Note:

The vogue of eighteenth century Italy saw the advent of vedute (“view”) paintings. After 1720, the vedute shifted toward depictions of the urban cityscape. Heralded one of the masters of this trend is Giovanni Antonio Canal called “Canaletto.” His works became especially popular with traveling British men. Around 1730, Joseph Smith, an English entrepreneur and later the British Consul to Venice, commissioned Canaletto to create a series of paintings of Venice while visiting the city.

In this work, the observer is situated at an omnipresent point of view of the Molo looking east. One’s gaze meanders about the boats of various sizes that crowd the Grand Canal and throughout the crowd of people and animals. From the dominating image of the Doge’s palace, one is led down the curve of the Riva degli Schiavoni into the distance. The work is lively and painted with astute sense of composition and Venetian topography.


Canadian artist John Hammond loved Venice. It is appropriate that this work belonged to the prominent Canadian artist John Hammond. Some of Hammond's best known works are of the Bay of Fundy and scenes of the harbour at Saint John, New Brunswick painted as though they were Venetian scenes.