Canaletto and Guardi: Views of Venice at the Wallace Collection

2025

Among the renowned Old Master paintings at the Wallace Collection in London is an important group of 27 eighteenth-century views of Venice, known as vedute, by Canaletto and his followers, including Francesco Guardi. They hang together in a dedicated gallery known as the Canaletto Room, but until recently the majority had not been cleaned since the nineteenth century and their original beauty was obscured by multiple layers of discoloured varnish.

The paintings have now been restored, following a multi-year conservation and research project, and this book presents them in their renewed splendour. It features essays and commentaries by Charles Beddington, the global expert on vedute, and by Wallace Collection previous curator Lelia Packer, which provide fresh insights into the artists’ creative processes, the dating of pictures and their authorship. Canaletto and Guardi is a gorgeous celebration of the beauty of Venice that these paintings convey.

Canaletto & Bellotto, Views of Venice, Rome & London

2019

To accompany the exhibition held at the gallery.

Venice Canaletto and His Rivals

2011

Canaletto may be the artist popularly associated with images of Venice in the eighteenth-century, but he had many rivals who competed for commissions, not only locally but from foreigners whose patronage was to determine the course of Venetian view painting later in the century. All the major figures are represented here - Bellotto, Carlevarijs, Guardi, Joli, Marieschi, and Vanvitelli - together with some fascinating contemporaries such as Cimaroli and Tironi. This beautiful book demonstrates the varied responses to the cityscape, with its ever-changing light, as well as to its spectacles and ceremonies.

Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy & a masterpiece by Francesco Guardi

2014

To accompany the exhibition held at the gallery.

Canaletto in England

2006

This book focuses on Canaletto in England, reproducing the views of London he painted while there, as well as the Italian and imaginary views he painted in response to the vigorous demands of his patrons. The book, which also serves as the catalogue of an exhibition at the Yale Centre for British Art and Dulwich Picture Gallery, offers a full study of Canaletto’s English period along with detailed catalogue entries for about fifty paintings and twenty drawings.