La Punta della Dogana

The low building tapering to a point at the centre is the Dogana da Mar, the sea customs house at the very tip of Venice, where ships entering the Grand Canal once had their cargo checked and taxed. Canaletto painted it around 1726, when he was still in his late 20s and only beginning to make his name selling city views to the foreign visitors pouring through on the Grand Tour. He had trained painting theatre scenery alongside his father, and it shows in the stage-like clarity of the light lying on the water. Across the channel sits the long island of the Giudecca with its churches. The picture was one of a set of eight that ended up in the Liechtenstein princes' collection before reaching Vienna.