This is a particularly freely executed study of the Grand Canal, dating from Turner's 1840 visit to Venice. The basis of the composition (the outlines of the buildings and the cloud forms) was established by the artist in pencil and then the watercolour added — possibly on the spot, or back in his hotel room. The Rialto Bridge can just be seen in the distance, framed to either side of the glassy canal by the façades of some of Venice's grandest buildings. The Palazzo Balbi, which dominates the scene at the left, was constructed for Nicolò Balbi, following the designs of Alessandro Vittoria, in the 1580s.

The vista chosen is an especially famous one, which was memorably depicted by the great eighteenth-century view-painter Canaletto (1697—1768). Turner was familiar with Canaletto's paintings and prints and created a specific homage to the artist in 1833, an oil painting entitled, Bridge of Sighs, Ducal Palace and Custom-House, Venice: Canaletti painting (Tate Britain, London). In this work, with a great deal of licence, he depicted Canaletto actually working on an oil painting in the open air; he must have known, however, that Canaletto would have made drawings outside and returned to his studio with them to work on canvas, so employing the practice Turner himself adopted.

Revised 2022
Published online 2016/17
This text was first published in J.M.W Turner: The Vaughan Bequest (2008).