Canaletto: Painter of London (Not Just Venice)
Thursday January 25, 2007
Canaletto and detailed paintings of Venice go together, right? Well, not exclusively. Canaletto also spent nine years in London, creating numerous paintings of the city and the Thames. He'd established himself as the painter of views of Venice, selling paintings to wealthy Englishmen doing their European Grand Tour who wanted to take home a souvenir. But when business dropped off because of war, he moved to London, in 1746, arriving "with letters of introduction, sheaves of old drawings and engravings and, doubtless, his small camera obscura."
In his article What a Wonderful World in The Guardian art critic Adrian Searle pays tribute to the London works of this famous painter and looks at how true a representation of reality they are. Searle says "often, in trying to reconstruct where exactly he sat or stood to make his preparatory drawings, or the viewpoint the paintings present to us, it becomes apparent that we have been led to an impossibly elevated vantage point, some imaginary balcony or nonexistent window." So while Canaletto's paintings are certainly detailed, they're not slavish copies of reality. Read more about Canaletto in London...
See Also:
• Exhibition: Canaletto in England (Dulwich Picture Gallery)
• Top 10 Free Things to Do in London
In his article What a Wonderful World in The Guardian art critic Adrian Searle pays tribute to the London works of this famous painter and looks at how true a representation of reality they are. Searle says "often, in trying to reconstruct where exactly he sat or stood to make his preparatory drawings, or the viewpoint the paintings present to us, it becomes apparent that we have been led to an impossibly elevated vantage point, some imaginary balcony or nonexistent window." So while Canaletto's paintings are certainly detailed, they're not slavish copies of reality. Read more about Canaletto in London...
See Also:
• Exhibition: Canaletto in England (Dulwich Picture Gallery)
• Top 10 Free Things to Do in London
Comments
If you have not visited Dulwich Picture Gallery this is an ideal occasion. Other than the Canaletto Exhibition, the gallery has a very fine collection of paintings by most of the great masters from Rubens to Rembrandt. On its own it is a very important building , being the first public Art Gallery in the world, built to a design copied by galleries all over the world.
I do not work at the Gallery but do live in Dulwich, which is a place worth visiting anyway.
I know that visiting Dulwich Picture Gallery and seeing these ‘Pitture magnifiche’ would inspire me. I never knew this about Canaletto or Dulwich Gallery, thanks for the article.