Venice Quay, Ducal Palace

Turner last saw Venice in 1840 and never went back. This view of the Riva degli Schiavoni, with the Doge's Palace on the left and the campanile of San Marco behind it, was worked up in London from sketchbooks and shown at the Royal Academy in 1844, when he was 69. The Venice he was remembering belonged to Austria, which had held the city since 1815. The shipyards were quiet and the money arrived with visitors coming in by steamer. In the same exhibition hung Rain, Steam, and Speed, his railway picture. This canvas never sold; it stayed in his own gallery and went to the nation with the rest of his estate in 1856.