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Overview
Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768), born Giovanni Antonio Canal, was the most famous painter of Venice, and one of the most famous Venetian painters, that ever lived. Although paintings dominate his oeuvre, in his middle age he produced a series of remarkable etchings which remain a less famous but affordable alternative to his classic canvases of the Grand Canal and its environs.
These 'vedute' (views) were really up-market souvenirs, popular with tourists at the time. The British were particularly crazy for Venice even as far back as the early 18th century, which boasted an estimated 30,000 tourists per annum. A fair number of the British were 'Grand Tourists', aristocrats and gentry, enjoying their great overseas experience. Canaletto's agent and patron, Joseph Smith, British Consul to the Venetian Republic, was a British visitor who stayed, eventually heading the merchant banking house of Williams and Smith.
This series of 34 etchings, dedicated to Smith, translates as 'Views: some taken from nature, some invented'. Plate V, which depicts the corner of the Palazzo Ducale, with the state prison beyond along the riva degli Schiavoni, fits into the former category.
Though this is one of the smaller prints, and on the face of it less exciting than the 'invented' views, it is nonetheless admired by Carl J. Weinhardt, Jr, in his article 'Canaletto: Master Etcher', an excellent introduction to the subject: 'In the View of the Prison, we reach familiar territory, and though the subject may be unimaginative, its light, quick treatment proves that he is now in complete and assured control of the etching needle. The strokes are [a century] before another print-maker, Charles Meryon, would etch the buildings of a city with anything like Canaletto's sense of their meaning and character.'
See:
Carl J. Weinhardt, 'Caneletto: Master Etcher', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, November 1958, https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/bulletins/1/pdf/3258280.pdf.bannered.pdf
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College of Fine Arts, Canaletto's Vedute Prints, http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/publications/canalettos-vedute-prints-exhibition-honor-adolph-weil-jr (with pdf)
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art July 2017