GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768)
Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732
Canaletto’s breathtaking view of Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732, will lead Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1 during Classic Week London (estimate in excess of £20 million). Having only appeared at auction twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993, this picture is in a remarkable state of preservation with the surface of the painting beautifully textured and the rich impasto of the figures intact. Inaccessible to scholars throughout much of its history, it has only recently come to light that the picture hung at 10 Downing Street, where it is first recorded in 1736, in the collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This illustrious early 18th century provenance makes it – along with its pendant of the Grand Canal – the earliest recorded work by the Venetian master to be hung in an English house, predating King George III’s purchase of Consul Joseph Smith’s Canalettos by a quarter of a century.