Turner first visited Venice in 1819. The city became a recurrent theme of his later work. Venice epitomised the contemporary decline of Italy. She had lost her wealth, trading empire, and even her independence, first to Napoleon and then to Austria. For the Romantic imagination, such a change of fortune seemed part of the historical cycle. For the British, whose wealth and empire was on the rise, it offered warnings about the future.The fishing boat setting out from Venice at sunset seems happy enough. But Turner’s title suggests sinking fortunes. He wrote: ‘the demon in grim repose/Expects his evening prey’.