A Lock, a Column, and a Church beside a Lagoon

In the foreground is a canal lock, with its sluice gates at an angle to the picture plane; to the right stand a column, surmounted by a statue of a crouching figure, and a domed church. Clustered in the middle distance on the left are a bridge, farmhouse, square tower, campanile, and pyramid; on the horizon rises a city with domed churches, campanili, and unusually tall towers. Several men populate the scene: one leans on the block of stone in the lower right and stares at the viewer; another sits on the lock, his back to the viewer; a third either fishes or helps to tie up a boat; and a fourth trots away on a white horse.

This is an unusual work for Canaletto in that it is not a record of an actual place but rather an imaginary composition. Early in his career Canaletto had contributed imaginary architecture to the series Tombeaux des princes, large canvases of allegorical tomb paintings commissioned by the Irish entrepreneur Owen McSwiney in about 1726. It was not until the early 1740s, however, that Canaletto began to create the capricci that became such an important part of the paintings, etchings, and highly finished drawings that he produced for the remaining three decades of his life. Canaletto made a distinction, in the inscription on the frontispiece to his etchings, between "vedute prese da i luoghi" (topographical views) and "vedute ideate" (imaginary views). Most of his capricci consist of identifiable motifs assembled in unexpected combinations, such as the Colleoni monument in Venice, Eton College Chapel, and the Venetian lagoon. The Metropolitan Museum capriccio and its pendant in the Saint Louis Art Museum (see fig. 1 above) are completely imaginary. Whereas the domed church with the columned porch vaguely recalls the Pantheon in Rome, the pyramid that of Cestius in Rome, and the city on the horizon Padua, these elements have a dreamlike quality, far removed from the verities of topographical painting.

Certain aspects of the painting have led some scholars to question the attribution to Canaletto. The bold handling of paint, cool palette, crystalline atmosphere, dramatic shadows, low horizon, and strong diagonal movement through the composition set it apart from the artist’s customary practice. No less an authority than W. G. Constable (1989) associated it with a group of paintings that have been ascribed to Canaletto’s nephew Bernardo Bellotto, but Constable maintained it was painted by Canaletto and tentatively dated it after the trip Canaletto and Bellotto made along the Brenta Canal to Padua in 1741/42. Bellotto was amazingly precocious: by the age of fifteen he could toss off such good workshop repetitions that until quite recently they passed as originals by Canaletto. By the age of eighteen his own artistic personality began to emerge. His descriptive mentality is apparent in the four views of Venice he painted for Field Marshal von der Schulenburg, documented in November 1740, showing his predilection for a cool palette combined with a fluent technique. His hand is visible in the two small pendant capricci in the Museo Civico at Asolo, once thought to be by Canaletto. They are comparable to The Met's painting in their lagoon settings with architectural ruins in the foregrounds on one side, the space receding diagonally to low horizons, and even include such shared motifs as the pyramid in the middle distance. The compositional similarities serve to point up their differences: the larger scale of Bellotto’s figures, his layered impasto, and—a telltale mark of his—the whiplike weeds sprouting from the tops of the ruins. The Met's canvas must date from this moment when uncle and nephew worked side by side, as equally talented painters, describing kindred scenes but distinguishable all the same.

[2014; adapted from Fahy 2005]

William Irby, 1st Baron Boston, Hedsor House, Taplow, Buckinghamshire (until d. 1775); the Barons Boston, Hedsor House (1775–1877); George Florance Irby, 6th Baron Boston, Hedsor House (1877–d. 1941; sale, Christie's, London, March 6, 1942, no. 52, with pendant, as "Islands near Venice," for 504 gns., to Leger); [Leger Galleries, London, from 1942]; Mrs. John Hall (in 1962); Patrick C. Hall, Longford Hall, Newport, Shropshire (until 1966; sale, Sotheby's, London, July 6, 1966, no. 64, as "A Caprice, with a Distant View of Venice," for £16,000 to Agnew); [Agnew, London, 1966–67; sold to Rust]; David Rust, Washington, D.C. (1967–86; sold to Harari & Johns); [Harari & Johns, London, 1986–87; sold to Wrightsman]; Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1987–d. 2019; cat., 2005, no. 20)

London. British Institution. June 1860, no. 71 (as "View on the Lagune, Venice," lent by Lord Boston).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bellini to Tiepolo: Summer Loans at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 29–August 31, 1993, unnum. checklist (as "Lagoon Capriccio").

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.

W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Oxford, 1962, vol. 1, p. 138, pl. 90; vol. 2, pp. 418–19, no. 487, with its pendant ("An Island in the Lagoon with a Gateway and a Church," Saint Louis Art Museum), as in the collection of Mrs. John Hall; dates them to the early 1740s and states that Lord Boston is said to have bought them in Italy soon after they were painted; lists a version in a private collection, London (see Notes).

Eighteenth Century Venetian Paintings and Drawings. Exh. cat., L'Œil galerie d'art. Paris, 1967, p. 21, under no. 1 [reprinted in French in L'Œil, no. 147 (March 1967), p. 6, under no. 1].

Art News 66 (May 1967), p. 48.

Lionello Puppi in The Complete Paintings of Canaletto. New York, 1968, pp. 107–8, no. 200, ill., dates it "1741–44?".

Venice in St. Louis. Exh. cat., St. Louis Art Museum. St. Louis, 1972, unpaginated, under no. 7.

W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, p. 138, pl. 90; vol. 2, pp. 453–54, no. 487, as in the collection of David E. Rust, Washington, D.C.

André Corboz. Canaletto: una Venezia immaginaria. Milan, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 259, 306, fig. 328; vol. 2, pp. 437–38, 444, 454, 456, 458, 460–61, 465–66, 468, 651, no. P312, fig. 496 (detail), ill. p. 651, sees Masonic symbolism in this picture.

Katharine Baetjer and J. G. Links. Canaletto. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 220, 222, under no. 62.

W. G. Constable. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. Ed. J. G. Links. 2nd ed., reissued with supplement and additional plates. Oxford, 1989, vol. 1, p. 138, pl. 90; vol. 2, pp. 453–54, no. 487.

Boudewijn Bakker in Painters of Venice: The Story of the Venetian "Veduta". Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1990, p. 167, under no. 28.

Bernard Aikema in Painters of Venice: The Story of the Venetian "Veduta". Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1990, pp. 73, 81 n. 172, fig. 67, rejects Corboz's (1985) identification of Masonic symbolism in this picture.

John Russell. "An Assortment of Very-Welcome Summer Guests." New York Times (August 6, 1993), p. C24.

Judith Walker Mann. "Baroque Into Rococo: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Paintings." Bulletin of the Saint Louis Art Museum, n.s., 22 (Winter 1997), pp. 46–47, fig. 21.

J. G. Links. A Supplement to W. G. Constable's Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768. London, 1998, p. 44.

Charles Beddington. "Bernardo Bellotto and His Circle in Italy, Part I: Not Canaletto but Bellotto." Burlington Magazine 146 (October 2004), p. 674, fig. 25 (color).

Judith Mann in Saint Louis Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection. St. Louis, 2004, p. 187.

Everett Fahy in The Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, pp. 70–72, no. 20, ill. (color).

John Gash and Charles Beddington. "Paintings by Canaletto and His Father in Aberdeen University." Burlington Magazine 159 (December 2017), pp. 980–81, fig. 27 (color), discuss it in connection with its pendant in Saint Louis, "Capriccio with Roman Ruins and a Bishop's Tomb" (University of Aberdeen), and "Capriccio with a Tomb and a Ruined Arch" (private collection, Italy), dating all four about 1742; call them "without equal in Canaletto's work for their combination of visual interest and a highly poetic mood" and state that they "show Canaletto's handling of paint at its most adept".

Robin Pogrebin. "The Met is Given Hundreds of Artworks." New York Times (November 16, 2019), p. C3 [online ed., "A Trustee Leaves Trove of Old Masters Works to the Met," November 13, 2019; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/arts/design/bequest-met-museum-wrightsman.html].

Hakim Bishara. "A Glorious Gift of European Artworks Is on Display at the Metropolitan Museum." Hyperallergic. November 19, 2019, ill. (color, installation views) [https://hyperallergic.com/528444/a-glorious-gift-of-european-artworks-is-on-display-at-the-metropolitan-museum/].

The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman. Christie's, New York. October 14, 2020, p. 12.

A version is recorded by Constable (1962) as in a private collection, London: oil on canvas, 20 x 29 in., formerly with Agnew, as "The Lido, Venice," attributed to Bellotto. Kozakiewicz (1972, no. Z386) rejects the attribution to Bellotto.

This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.