Campo Sant'Angelo, Venice

1720–1746 · 工作地

Venice

late 1720s

Owen Swiny urges him to paint views for tourists

Many of Canaletto's pictures are sold to Englishmen on their Grand Tour, first through the agency of Owen Swiny, who in the late 1720s encourages him to paint small topographical views of Venice with a commercial appeal for tourists and foreign visitors to the city.

until 1728

The association with Joseph Smith begins

Sometime before 1728 Canaletto begins his association with Joseph Smith, an English businessman and collector living in Venice, who is appointed British Consul there in 1744; Smith will become the artist's principal agent and patron.

1728–1735

Visentini's etchings after thirty-eight of Canaletto's views

In 1728–35 Smith arranges for thirty-eight of Canaletto's painted vedute to be reproduced in etchings by Antonio Visentini and published under the title “Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus Celebriores ex Antonii Canal”.

c. 1729 – 1735

Smith as agent: a “market of taste” for the Venetian veduta

Joseph Smith — a banker, art dealer and later British consul in Venice — creates a “market of taste” for the Venetian veduta among British aristocrats touring Italy and, as Canaletto's commercial agent from about 1729 to 1735, in effect controls the artist's work to the benefit of them both. Among the young painter's buyers is also the Prince of Liechtenstein.

1740s

The War of the Austrian Succession: the British stop coming

In the 1740s Canaletto's market is disrupted when the War of the Austrian Succession reduces the number of British visitors to Venice. Smith arranges for the publication of a series of etchings of “capricci” (architectural fantasies), but the returns are not high enough.