Canaletto, 1697–1768, Venetian, active in Britain (1746–55)
Title:
The City from Near the Terrace of Somerset House
Date:
ca. 1750
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Frame: 21 × 34 1/2 inches (53.3 × 87.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Label on verso, upper center: “Pitt & Scott Ltd | London | [handwritten] Paul Mellon | [typed] BO [handwritten] 2044 | N0 2”; upper center: “Antonio Canaletto [handwritten] PM 2685 | [typed] The Thames from [...] [T?]errace | of Somerset House [...]king | down stream”; lower center: “Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd. | [logo] No 26733 | By Appointment | To The Late King George VI | London, | [...] Bond Street, | [...]”
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.96
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
genre subject | road | terrace | costume | boats | cityscape | rowboats | walking | women | men | children | lovers | steeples | spires | dome | river | bridge (built work) | cathedral | churches | houses | buildings
Associated Places:
England | United Kingdom | Europe | Thames | London | Greater London | London Bridge | St. Paul's Cathedral | Somerset House
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Canaletto in England - A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-19 - 2006-12-31)Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1998-02-08 - 1998-04-26)Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1999-10-22 - 2000-01-02)Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2001-02-25 - 2001-05-20)Roads to Rails - Revolution in British Transport (Yale Center for British Art, 1992-04-15 - 1992-06-28)
Publications:
Charles Beddington, Canaletto in England, a Venetian artist abroad, 1746-1755 , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2006, pp. 21, 60, 62-63, no. 5, NJ18 C17 B45 2006 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 287, 290-291, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Buckingham Palace Canaletto, Paintings & Drawings , Queen's Gallery (London, England), London, 1980, p. 73, NJ18 C17 C35 (YCBA)Canaletto to Constable : paintings of town and country from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 1998, front cover, p. 43, pl. 9, ND1354.4 Y25 1998 (YCBA)W. G. Constable, Canaletto : Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1976, pp. 418-419 (vol. 2), no. 428b (vol. 2), no. 207 (vol. 1), NJ18 C17 C65 1976 (YCBA)W. G. Constable, Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768 , vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1961, pp. 388-389, no. 428b, 428d, NJ18 C17 C65 2 (YCBA)Andre´ Corboz, Canaletto, una Venezia immaginaria , vol 1 and vol 2, Alfieri Electa, Milano, 1985, vol 1 p. 110; vol 2 p. 716, no. P 408, NJ18 C17 C67 OVERSIZE (HAAS)Malcolm Cormack, A Selective Promenade, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 287, 290-291, N1 A54 + (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 48-49, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Elisabeth Fairman, Roads to rails : revolution in British transport, , New Haven, CT, 1992, p. 19, no. 168, HE243 .F25 1992 (YCBA)Greater London Council, Claude-Joseph Vernet, London, 1976, unpaginated, no. 36, NJ18 V615 G73 OVERSIZE (YCBA)In the Sale Rooms, 56,000 Gns for Canalettos , The Times (London), London, Saturday, November 27, 1965, p. 5, Available Online : Times Digital Archive Also available on Microfllm : An T482 (SML)Jan-Carlos Kucharek, London Eye, Guidelines on Visualization , Royal Institute of British Architecture, November 2006, pp. 64-66, NA12 R65 OVERSIZE (HAAS)Michael Levey, The later Italian pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1991, p. 18, no. 37, ND616 L48 1991 (YCBA)John Simpson, Canaletto, Modern Painters, vol 2, Winter 1989/1990, p. 76, ND468 M57 2 (OVERSIZE SERIALS) (YCBA)David H. Solkin, Art in Britain 1660-1815, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015, pp. 120, 121, fig, 124, N6766 S65 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Roxane Sperber, Canaletto's Colour : the inspiration and implications of changing grounds, pigments and paint applications in the artist's English period, British Art Studies, Issue 2, Spring 2016, pages are unnumbered, figs. 5, 10, 27, 50, http://dx.doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-02/rsperber-jstengerMargaret Whinney, Wren, Thames and Hudson, London, 1985, p. 67, NJ18 W92 W44 1985 (YCBA)Patrick Wright, New Father Thames, Guardian (Manchester, England), 13 June 2000, p. A3, Available online: ProQuest Historical NewspapersYale Center for British Art, Da Canaletto a Constable, vedute di citta` e di campagna dallo Yale Center for British Art : Ferrara - Palazzo dei Diamanti, 25 febbraio -20 maggio 2001 , Ferrara Arte, Ferrara, 2001, pp. 21, 28-29, 68-69, fig. 1, pl. 10, ND1354.4 Y2517 2001 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
This magnificent view downstream toward the city of London, with its forest of church steeples, is the pendant to Canaletto’s view in the opposite direction (hanging to your right). The view is dominated by the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, by Sir Christopher Wren, who also designed many of the spires (all made necessary by the destruction caused by the Great Fire). The “Monument,” a tall column erected to commemorate the disaster of 1666, is just visible near the north end of Old London Bridge (right). Canaletto produced for Consul Smith a much larger pair of paintings of the same subject. Those pictures were sold with the rest of Smith’s collection to George III and remain in the Royal Collection. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016