La Punta della Dogana

The low building tapering to a point is the Dogana da Mar, the sea customs house at the very tip of Venice, where ships entering the Grand Canal once had their cargo checked and taxed. Canaletto painted it in the late 1720s, when he was still under 35 and making his name selling city views to the foreign visitors pouring through on the Grand Tour. He had trained painting theatre scenery alongside his father, and it shows in the stage-like clarity of the light lying on the water. The view runs across the open quay in front of the customs house to the long island of the Giudecca, with the church of the Zitelle on the far shore. The picture belonged to the Manfrin collection in Venice and then to a string of private collectors in Vienna, and the museum bought it in 1918.