Venice: A Regatta on the Grand Canal

Every February the Venetians held a great rowing race down the Grand Canal, timed to the feast of the Purification and the height of Carnival, and Canaletto painted it around 1733. The crowd packs the balconies and the water, and near the finishing point stands the macchina, a temporary floating pavilion where prizes were handed out. Its coat of arms belongs to Carlo Ruzzini, who was Doge in exactly those years, which lets us date the scene closely. Canaletto made the picture for Joseph Smith, a British merchant and consul in Venice who sold views like this to visitors on the Grand Tour. In 1762 the young George III bought Smith's entire collection at once, and it went to London, where it remains in the Royal Collection.