Giovanni Antonio Canal, commonly known as Canaletto, was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
19 Facts About Canaletto
2.
Canaletto was further an important printmaker using the etching technique.
3.
Canaletto was highly successful in England, thanks to the British merchant and connoisseur Joseph "Consul" Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto's works was sold to King George III in 1762.
4.
Canaletto was born in Venice as the son of the painter Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym Canaletto, and Artemisia Barbieri.
5.
Canaletto served an apprenticeship with his father and his brother of a theatrical scene painter.
6.
Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people.
7.
Canaletto's first known signed and dated work is Architectural Capriccio.
8.
Later Canaletto painted grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace.
9.
Sometime before 1728, Canaletto began his association with Smith, an English businessman and collector living in Venice who was appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744.
10.
Smith arranged for the publication of a series of etchings of "capricci" in his vedute ideali, but the returns were not high enough, and in 1746 Canaletto moved to London, to be closer to his market.
11.
Whilst in England, between 1749 and 1752 Canaletto lived at number 41 Beak Street in London's Soho district.
12.
Canaletto remained in England until 1755, producing views of London and of his patrons' houses and castles.
13.
Smithson was one of the commissioners of Westminster Bridge, and it is "not impossible" that he had encouraged Canaletto to come to England and record the beginning of the bridge's life.
14.
Canaletto's 1754 painting of Old Walton Bridge includes an image of Canaletto himself.
15.
Canaletto was often expected to paint England in the fashion with which he had painted his native city.
16.
Canaletto's painting began to suffer from repetitiveness, losing its fluidity, and becoming mechanical to the point that the English art critic George Vertue suggested that the man painting under the name 'Canaletto' was an impostor.
17.
Canaletto was willing to make subtle alterations to topography for artistic effect.
18.
Canaletto's students included his nephew Bernardo Bellotto, Francesco Guardi, Michele Marieschi, Gabriele Bella, and Giuseppe Moretti.
19.
Joseph Smith sold much of his collection to George III, creating the bulk of the large collection of works by Canaletto owned by the Royal Collection.