Giovanni Antonio Canal or Canaletto. Verona. Italy. 1877.

Print from steel engraving titled „Verona“.

Artist Giovanni Antonio Canal or Canaletto.

Engraved by A. H. Payne.

From „Balled-Galleri af beromte maleres vaerker, indeholdende staalstukne Gjengivelser af italienske, spanske, frannske, flanderske, hollandske og tydske Mesteres mest fremragende malerier. Mede n Raekke Portraiter i Traesnit og en efter de nyeste og bedste Skrifter udarbejdet biographist Text.“ Andet Bind. Kjobenhavn. P. G. Philipsens forlag. 1877.

Giovanni Antonio Canal (17 or 18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), better known as Canaletto was an Italian painter of landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching. He was born in Venice as the son of the painter Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym Canaletto ("little Canal"), and Artemisia Barbieri. Bernardo Bellotto was his nephew and pupil. Canaletto served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother. He began in his father's occupation, that of a theatrical scene painter. Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people.After returning from Rome in 1719, he began painting in his topographical style. His first known signed and dated work is Architectural Capriccio (1723, Milan, in a private collection). Studying with the older Luca Carlevarijs, a moderately-talented painter of urban cityscapes, he rapidly became his master's equal.In 1725, the painter Alessandro Marchesini, who was also the buyer for the Lucchese art collector Stefano Conti had inquired about buying two more 'views of Venice', when the agent informed him to consider instead the work of "Antonio Canale... it is like Carlevaris, but you can see the sun shining in it." Canaletto's early works remain his most coveted and, according to many authorities, his best. Later Canaletto painted grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace. His large-scale landscapes portrayed the city's pageantry and waning traditions, making innovative use of atmospheric effects and strong local colors. For these qualities, his works may be said to have anticipated Impressionism.

Approx. image size 20, 5 x 11, 4/28, 2 x 20, 3 cm.

Condition: medium.