Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (Venice 1697 - 1768), Venice, The entrance to the Grand Canal looking east. Photo Sotheby's

oil on canvas, unframed; 25.3 by 41.8 cm.; 10 by 16 1/2 in. ESTIMATE 80,000-120,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 199,250 GBP

PROVENANCE: R.T. Paget, Esq., Q.C., M.P., London;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 11 June 1981, lot 111, for $32,000;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Nobleman'), London, Christie's, 11 December 1984, lot 129, for £30,000;
Anonymous sale, Zurich, Gallerie Koller, 29 November 1985, lot 5015 for 230,000 SF (approx. £74, 919).

EXHIBITED: London, B. Koetser Gallery, Old Master Paintings, 3 October - 16 December 1966.

LITERATURE: W.G. Constable, Canaletto, Oxford 1976 and 1989, vol. II, p. 268, cat. no. 170 a) 2, reproduced vol. I, plate 196;
A. Corboz, Canaletto, Una Venezia immaginaria, Milan 1985, vol. II, p. 744, cat. no. P472, reproduced;
J.G. Links, A Supplement to W.G. Constable's Canaletto, London 1998, p. 18, cat. no. 170 a).

CATALOGUE NOTE: The composition repeats the prototype in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen. To the right of the composition we find the church of Santa Maria della Salute, beyond it the Seminario Patriarcale and the buildings of the Dogana. To the left we see the Molo leading into the Riva degli Schiavoni, with the Zecca and the Palazzo Ducale at the extreme left.

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

1. See Constable, under Literature, pp. 267-68, cat. no. 170, reproduced vol. I, plate 37

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale. London | 04 Jul 2012 www.sothebys.com