Grand tour of Venice

Andrew Lambirth on the splendour of the Canaletto exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery

Magnet for tourists as it is, Buckingham Palace is the perfect setting for Canaletto in Venice, an exhibition devoted to the grandest producer of tourist art of the 18th century focusing exclusively on a city which had already become one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768) was known as Canaletto to distinguish him from his father, a successful painter of theatrical scenery. Young Giovanni trained in Venice in the family business, before branching out on his own in the early 1720s and painting views of Venice for the rich nobles undertaking the Grand Tour. As artists usually do, he needed an agent to promote and sell his work, and who better than Joseph Smith (c.1674–1770), merchant banker, book dealer and publisher? Smith was a noted collector whose palazzo was an established port of call for Grand Tourists. He took orders for Canaletto’s pictures, and himself built up an excellent collection of the Venetian’s paintings and drawings, which was bought for George III in 1762. The current display is a selection from it.

We are offered an exhibition of 14 paintings and 70 drawings, which includes the largest group of works on paper by Canaletto ever shown in Britain. And if you remain unconvinced by his skilful contrivances in paint, the exquisite freshness of the drawings, their virtuoso handling and effortless control of light and atmosphere, will surely win you over. The show begins with an anteroom of drawings including a group of four beautiful compositional drafts in ink over pencil. The subject is firmly established, with a large map of Venice to help identify the views. Actually, Canaletto was not above ‘improving’ a composition through subtle manipulation or the editing of reality.