Venice, the Doge's Palace

Renoir reached Venice in the autumn of 1881, and like nearly every painter who came through, he went for the famous view across the water towards the Doge's Palace, with the island of San Giorgio Maggiore behind him. It was so popular that he joked there were at least six of them queuing up to paint it. He took it seriously all the same. The buildings are set down with real accuracy, the pink and cream walls of the palace catching the sun against a sky of quick blue strokes, while gondolas and sails crowd the basin in front. The tall bell tower on the left is the one Renoir actually saw. That campanile of San Marco collapsed in July 1902, and the tower standing there today is a copy, rebuilt on the same spot and completed in 1912.