Canaletto: A Venetian's View

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Saturday 1 October 2022 – Saturday 7 January 2023 at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.

Celebrating the wonderful work of Canaletto. This exhibition features stunning paintings from Woburn Abbey, Tate, Compton Verney, and Birmingham Museums Trust. All together with artworks from Worcester's Fine Art Collection.

Canaletto revolutionised the use of colour, ground, and canvas. He pioneered the technique of painting from life, sitting in front of the subject outdoors, as opposed to his contemporaries of the time who completed paintings in the studio. This exhibition explores Canaletto's work and the impact he had on the generations of artists who followed him.

Born in Venice, Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697 – 1768), commonly known as Canaletto, was an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. He became very popular with English collections, and visited England repeatedly between 1746 – 56.

It is extremely rare for this hugely significant collection to leave Woburn Abbey. This is the first time the paintings are united with other examples of Canaletto's work from Birmingham Museums and Compton Verney.

The paintings on display were commissioned in the 1730s by the fourth Duke of Bedford, and are considered the absolute best of Canaletto's paintings of Venice.

Image: Canaletto, 'View of the Grand Canal from the Palazzo Bembo to Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi (No. 3)'. Woburn Abbey Collection.