ANTONIO CANAL,
called CANALETTO, Italy, 1697 - 1768
A Village on a River
etching, about 1735-1746
Ackland Fund, 63.40.1

Canaletto's etchings were issued some time before 1746, when he left for a trip to England. He approaches etching like a painter with a freedom of motion, loose strokes and a variation of intensity. He has the capacity to suggest color in a black and white image. Canaletto is known as a master of view painting and many of his paintings are faithful reproductions of the cityscape of Venice, but others combine real and invented motifs.

This is the only one of Canaletto's prints for which preliminary drawings survive, views of buildings that he probably sketched along the Brenta River near Venice. In the etching he made numerous small changes to the buildings and added the foreground of river and trees. Sketches made from nature have been transformed into a composition that looks like a documentary view but in fact is a product of the artist's imagination.