I
remember gazing with awe at a Canaletto
painting in the National Gallery in London – the light in the sky was amazingly
luminous. But other than that I didn't
know too much about him.
It
turns out that he was a Venetian who specialised in painting scenes of Venice –
very accomplished ones indeed. But his
market was almost exclusively English tourists doing what was known then as The
Grand Tour. And effectively his works
were bought as souvenirs – albeit very upmarket ones! Today they'd have taken digital pictures
instead.
This
market dried up in 1745 when travel became difficult because of a war. So Canaletto took himself off to London where
he based himself for 10 years. He
painted many London scenes but they never were as popular as the Venetian ones.
Their so lovely, Carole. I enjoyed learning about the artist too!
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