Preview
Creation Date
1735–1746
Geography
Venice, Italy
Culture
Italian
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
With frame: 15 13/16 × 13 13/16 × 1 1/16 in. (40.1 × 35.1 × 2.7 cm)
Credit Line
Long-term Loan from the Estate of Boris Blick, 2015
Accession Number
2015.69
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
Below image, lower center: "A. Canal. ſ."
Beneath image, lower margin, right: "21"
Stamp on back of frame, lower center: "DENIS CONLEY GALLERY / 754 Kenmore Blvd. / Akron, Ohio 44314 / 330-754-2022"
Creator Biography
Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto), Italian, 1697–1768 (etcher).
Description
This etching displays the experience of merchant life in Venice during the eighteenth century, with picturesque Italian architecture and the towering masts of trade ships. The scene is crowded with vendors and pedestrians captured in a flurry of activity. Each image on display relays a different aspect of the Venetian world: from urban culture and canal life, to the rural countryside outside the city.
Born in Venice, Canaletto spent most of his career producing vedute (views), which were popular among Grand Tourists, upper-class Europeans who traveled throughout Italy for cultural enrichment in the 18th century. Unique among his contemporaries, he painted from nature, recording the specific details of Venetian life. One of Boris Blick's favorite artists, Canaletto depicted the pristine beauty of Italy.
Elena Brush ('15)
This etching is one of 36 created for Vedute Altre prese da i Luoghi Altre ideate (Views, Some Taken from Places, Others Invented) depicting Venice, Canaletto's home and constant source of artistic inspiration.