A Venetian painter in London

The reputations of talented artists precede them even to faraway locales, and seemingly always have. Hans Holbein the Younger was successful in both Switzerland and England; Leonardo da Vinci left Italy when he was invited to France by Francis I; and Canaletto's work met with success both in Venice and in London, where he spent nine fruitful years. The works he produced during this period, primarily of British subjects, were the focus of a recent exhibition held at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, and at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London under the title Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755. In the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition, three essays by Charles Beddington, Brian Allen, and Francis Russell examine the artist's work, the art market, and patronage in London during these years.

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Canaletto arrived in England in May 1746, a stranger to the city of London but not to many of the English aristocrats who had stopped in Venice on the obligatory grand tour and purchased one or two of his works, perhaps through the expatriate Joseph Smith, a merchant who later served as British consul from 1744 to 1760 and formed a large collection of the artist's drawings and paintings. Canaletto also met new patrons who were building large houses that needed furnishings and paintings: the ninth Duke of Norfolk, the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, and the fifth Baron King, among them.

According to Beddington "There is reason to believe that Canaletto's activity in England brought him financial rewards beyond those he enjoyed at any other time in his long and industrious career." The word industrious is an apt one, for in the years he spent in London Canaletto completed forty-eight views of English subjects, thirty-five of which are of London. He also painted or drew a few country houses (Syon and Badminton), castles or royal residences (Windsor and Warwick), and many, many bridges (Westminster, Hampton Court, and Old Walton). Westminster Bridge, which he painted more than any other British subject, was one of the most significant engineering feats of the eighteenth century and the subject of some of the artist's most innovative paintings.

In his essay Brian Allen discusses the art world in London in the early eighteenth century, noting that it was populated by many foreign-born artists who readily found work if they were accomplished. The Royal Academy was not founded until 1768, and so native-born artists often went abroad to train.

This publication is a welcome reassessment of Canaletto's English works, which in his own day were dismissed as secondary to his Italian views, including his capricci. George Vertue, a chronicler of the art world in his time, wrote in June 1749: "Signor Cannelletti from Venice having now been in England some time, has painted Several Views about London .... he dos not produce works so well done as those of Venice or other parts of Italy. which are in collections here and done by him there." Rather than seeing the artist's English views as bland and having a cookie-cutter sameness, Beddington examines them afresh and presents us with the artistic merit found in the seventy-one paintings and drawings he was able to borrow for the exhibition and illustrate in this catalogue.

Finally, although most art books today are illustrated in color, a word or two must be said about the sumptuous design and production of this volume. The horizontal format is perfectly suited for the reproduction of Canaletto's canvases. And one can get lost in the details that have been so perfectly chosen and generously reproduced. Each time you look you find something you had not noticed earlier--oriental carpets hanging over windowsills airing in the sun, stone or clay urns planted with colorful flowers that adorn the uprights of Old Walton Bridge, or a marble shrine that is a focal point in a garden at Windsor Castle. This new look at a widely published artist is a visual treat.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning