View of the Ducal Palace in Venice

Canaletto painted this view of the Doge's Palace and the lagoon so many times that dating any single version is a puzzle, and here the answer is in plain sight. Look across the water to the Clock Tower on Piazza San Marco. It still wears its older top, before the alterations of 1755, which tells us the picture was finished just before that year. By then Canaletto was the most sought-after view painter in Europe, selling these scenes mainly to British travellers on the Grand Tour who wanted a souvenir of Venice sharper and sunnier than the real city. This canvas entered the Uffizi in 1796.