PRESS RELEASE
April 2017
Secrets of Canaletto's drawings revealed ahead of a new exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
The 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto is best known for his evocative images of Italy's most alluring city. Now infrared photography of the artist's drawings has revealed details of his working methods for the first time and has cast doubt on the long-held view that Canaletto used a 'camera obscura'. The remarkable discoveries were made during research for the Royal Collection Trust exhibition Canaletto & the Art of Venice, opening at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace in May. Infrared image of Canaletto's drawing The central stretch of the Grand Canal, c.1734 Widely employed to analyse paintings, infrared photographic techniques are not often applied to works on paper. Royal Collection Trust conservators used a special camera to pass infrared rays through the surface of Canaletto's pen-and-ink drawings. Some drawing materials such as ink, are transparent to infrared wavelengths, and the camera only detected the carbon in chalk or pencil underdrawing. The resulting images have uncovered previously hidden marks on the paper, giving an extraordinary insight into Canaletto's artistic practices.
Infrared photographs of six drawings of the Grand Canal, including The central stretch of the Grand Canal, c.1734, reveal Canaletto's extensive use of pencil underdrawing. They show how the artist set out the details of buildings with meticulous accuracy, plotting in the chimneys, façades and windows. Using a ruler, he extended the lines of the architecture into the water to serve as refections of the buildings. With the pencil lines as a guide, Canaletto then drew in details, such as clouds and ripples on water, in pen and ink to add spontaneity to his work.
Canaletto is long thought to have used a camera obscura to achieve topographical accuracy in his work. A precursor of the modern camera, the device enabled artists to trace an inverted image of a view formed by rays of light passing through a small hole in a box. The results of the infrared photography clearly show that Canaletto was not tracing the outlines of the buildings in the open air but was carefully plotting out the scene with pencil and ruler in the studio.
Canaletto's views of Venice were admired for being true representations of the city. However, the infrared images have uncovered the extent to which the artist manipulated the scene in front of him, moving architectural features and entire buildings to create more balanced compositions. The photograph of the drawing The Piazzetta looking towards Santa Maria della Salute, c.1723–4, shows that Canaletto initially drew in pencil the two columns at
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the entrance to the Piazzetta. He clearly changed his mind while he was working and omitted the column against the façade of the Libreria from the completed pen-and-ink composition. In the final painting, which can be compared to the preparatory drawing included in the exhibition, the column reappears.
Exhibition co-curator Rosie Razzall said, 'Only occasionally are the pencil lines in Canaletto's drawings visible to the naked eye. Although we knew that he made preparatory markings on paper, our discovery of the extent to which he used underdrawing to plan out his compositions was entirely unexpected and very exciting. The infrared imaging shows meticulous, mechanical ruled lines, which Canaletto would have intended to cover with the more spontaneous draughtsmanship usually associated with his work. The imaging shows categorically that these sheets were not made with a camera obscura.'
In 1762 the young monarch George III purchased virtually the entire collection of Joseph Smith, the greatest patron of art in Venice at the time. Now part of the Royal Collection, the collection included 142 drawings, which constituted then, and remains today, the largest single body of graphic material by Canaletto, and over a third of the artist's surviving drawings.
The exhibition Canaletto & the Art of Venice presents the work of Venice's most famous view-painter alongside that of his contemporaries, including Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Rosalba Carriera, Francesco Zuccarelli, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Pietro Longhi. The exhibition explores how these artists captured the essence of Venice for their 18th-century audience through over 200 paintings, drawings and prints from the Royal Collection's exceptional holdings. Ends
Canaletto & the Art of Venice is at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 19 May – 12 November 2017.
The accompanying publication, Canaletto & the Art of Venice, is published by Royal Collection Trust, price £29.95.
Visitor information and tickets for The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace: www.royalcollection.org.uk, T. +44 (0)30 3123 7301.
A selection of images is available from www.picselect.com. For further information and photographs, please contact the Royal Collection Trust Press Office, +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected].
Notes to Editors
Royal Collection Trust, a department of the Royal Household, is responsible for the care of the Royal Collection and manages the public opening of the official residences of The Queen. Income generated from admissions and from associated commercial activities contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access
Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk
and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational programmes. Royal Collection Trust’s work is undertaken without public funding of any kind.
The Royal Collection is among the largest and most important art collections in the world, and one of the last great European royal collections to remain intact. It comprises almost all aspects of the fine and decorative arts, and is spread among some 15 royal residences and former residences across the UK, most of which are regularly open to the public. The Royal Collection is held in trust by the Sovereign for her successors and the nation, and is not owned by The Queen as a private individual.
Admission to The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace is managed by The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1016972) and in Scotland (SCO39772).
Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk