This exhilarating scene shows the annual regatta (boat race) along Venice’s Grand Canal, and Canaletto has successfully captured the crowd’s excitement as the competitors skilfully manoeuvre their craft up the canal. Although many of the figures in the foreground have their backs to us, we still get a sense of their mood: most stand in a state of suspense, arms raised or pointing.
The sharply receding view intensifies the drama of the race: we feel like we're watching the boats speed away. Intense sunlight picks out the tightly packed spectators along the waterfront and in buildings, displaying brightly coloured cloths. We see wealthy Venetians in colourful rowing boats and ordinary folk in smaller gondolas.
This picture was painted in about 1735, and the scene was obviously popular among Canaletto’s clients – he returned to the subject in a later version, also in our collection, made around 1740.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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