Joseph Mallord William Turner

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Finberg later annotated his basic 1909 Inventory entry (‘View on canal’): ‘From Mouth Gd. Canal. S. Giorgio in distance’.1 Details are a little uncertain in the left foreground, but the viewpoint is likely somewhere off the Palazzo Badoer Tiepolo (now the Westin Europa & Regina Hotel), with a token indication of the porch of the Dogana defining the south side of the Grand Canal on the right. Beyond, the campanile and dome of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore are seen across the Bacino to the east-south-east.

The prospect, from not far west of the Hotel Europa (Palazzo Giustinian) where Turner was staying, was long familiar; compare a sketch in the 1819 Milan to Venice book (Tate D14434; Turner Bequest CLXXV 62a). Folios 53 recto and 61 recto (D31894, D31910) show similar views.