Entrance to the Arsenal, Venice

The Arsenal was the state shipyard of the Venetian Republic, walled off from the rest of the city, and its land entrance was a gateway built in 1460, standing beside the towers that guard the canal where ships passed in and out. When Guardi took up the subject, around 1755 to 1760, he built his view on prints, etchings by Luca Carlevarijs and Michele Marieschi, two view painters of the generation before him. This small canvas carries the design one step further. The museum gives it to Guardi's workshop and leaves it undated.

By 1874 it belonged to Sir Edward Page-Turner, a baronet, at Battlesden House in Bedfordshire. It was sold at Christie's in London in 1903, bought by the dealers Agnew's, and went the next year to Horatio Greenough Curtis of Boston, whose widow gave it to the museum in 1927 in his memory.