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Canaletto (Venice 1697-Venice 1768)

Title plate with a dedication to Joseph Smith published c.1744

Etching | 30.5 x 42.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 807790

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  • An etching of a massive wall of a classical ruin lapped by water. The wall is inscribed with the dedication of Canaletto's thirty-one etchings to Consul Joseph Smith. Second state, see Bromberg no. 1.

    Canaletto and his nephew Bernardo Bellotto began to experiment with etching in the early 1740s, an enterprise that has often been attributed to the decline in visitors to Venice and commissions following the War of Austrian Succession. Many of Canaletto's prints take their subject matter from the locks, sluice gates and summerhouses along the Brenta Canal towards Padua; others are entirely imaginary. Canaletto made just thirty-three etchings in total, etched on plates of two different sizes (about 30 x 42cm and 14 x 21cm), several prints include titles, but only one is dated, to 1741. Thirty-one of the prints were published together some time after 1744 as Vedute alle prese da i luoghi altre ideate (Views, some taken from nature, others imaginary). The present print was issued as a titleplate and is dedicated to ‘Signor Giuseppe Smith, Console di S. M. Britanico’, who was appointed to the position of Consul that year; the set was probably issued before the artist left for England in 1746. Smith possibly commissioned and financed Canaletto’s experiments. Many of the Canaletto etchings in the Print Room at Windsor are second and third states and were probably acquired in the twentieth century (see RCIN 807805). Identifiable by the traces of gold from the wash line borders with which they were once surrounded in Smith's Canaletto album, only a handful of prints definitely belonged to Smith, including several rare and unique impressions (see RCINs 807801, 807802, 807804).

    A first state of the titleplate is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, with a handwritten inscription in Canaletto's hand and an annotation 'piu piccolè' referring to the size of capital letters in the final plate. A drawing, apparently an early design for the titleplate, is in the same collection (K.d.Z.4232).

    Provenance

    Acquired c. 1920-5

  • Medium and techniques

    Etching

    Measurements

    30.5 x 42.8 cm (sheet of paper)

    29.4 x 42.6 cm (platemark)

  • Object type(s)

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