View in Venice, with San Giorgio Maggiore

Bonington sketched this scene from a boat traveling along a canal in Venice. It shows the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, with its prominent bell tower, on the left, with the brilliant dome of Santa Maria della Salute directly ahead. Rather than a finished work of art, it was intended as a record to which the artist could subsequently refer when back in his studio. The barely focused architectural detail and fluidity of paint handling creates the sense of a veil of atmosphere. Bonington’s paintings of Venice, exhibited in 1827 and 1828, were heralded as radical new interpretations of the venerable city and influenced generations of later artists.