Canaletto - Regatta on the Canale Grande

• Title: Regatta on the Canale Grande
• Artist: Canaletto (1697-1768)
• Date: 1740
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 122 x 183 cm

“Regatta on the Canal Grande” depicts the annual gondola race along the Grand Canal of Venice, Italy. A great crowd is standing on boats, at windows and on the quays, watching and cheering competitors skilfully manoeuvering their craft up the canal. Canaletto paints Venitians of all origins, wealthy and ordinary, some with masks and sophisticated hats on richly decorated gondolas, others wearing simple head coverings. Canaletto uses a sharply receding perspective down the canal to create more drama and intensity, giving an increased sense of speed.

Canaletto’s speciality was painting Venice and particularly its Canal Grande. He painted Venice in all seasons and turned it into a very profitable business, exporting his works of art across Europe.

With his attentive observation of outdoor activities and his painting outdoors, Canaletto would try to best see changing colors with time of day, reflections of light on the water, sense the effect of seasons, etc. Canaletto was an important precursor of Impressionism