A gorgeous celebration of the beauty of Venice as conveyed in the paintings of Canaletto and his followers.

Among the renowned Old Master paintings at the Wallace Collection in London is an important group of 27 eighteenth-century views of Venice, known as vedute, by Canaletto and his followers, including Francesco Guardi. They hang together in a dedicated gallery known as the Canaletto Room, but until recently the majority had not been cleaned since the nineteenth century and their original beauty was obscured by multiple layers of discoloured varnish.

The paintings have now been restored and rephotographed, following a multi-year conservation and research project that has also led to a reappraisal of them. This book presents these pictures in their renewed splendour. It features essays and commentaries by Charles Beddington, the global expert on vedute, and by Wallace Collection curator Lelia Packer. Together they provide fresh insights into the artists’ creative processes, the dating of pictures and their authorship.

Lelia Packer was previously the Curator of Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German and Pre-1600 Paintings at The Wallace Collection.

Charles Beddington is an independent scholar and art dealer based in London who is a world authority on Venetian vedute.