The Gate at Dolo

A drawing of this view in the Museo Correr in Venice carries a note, possibly in Guardi's own hand, veduta della Porta del Dolo per andar a Padova, view of the Dolo gate on the way to Padua. Dolo is a town on the Brenta, the water road between Venice and Padua, lined with the summer villas of Venetian families. For travellers coming down from the north it was often the last stop on the mainland before the lagoon. Here a narrow arched bridge crosses the busy canal.

Guardi painted the subject several times, in upright and in horizontal versions. This one is tiny, barely 22 centimetres wide, and the museum places it after 1780. The gallery bought it in 1875.