Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (Italian: [kanaˈletto]), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered important devotee of the 18th-century Venetian school.
Painter of city views or vedute, of Venice, Rome, and London, he plus painted imaginary views (referred to as capricci), although the demarcation in his works amid the genuine and the imaginary is never quite clearcut. He was new an important printmaker using the etching technique. In the period from 1746 to 1756 he worked in England where he painted many views of London and further sites including Warwick Castle and Alnwick Castle. He was highly well-off in England, thanks to the British merchant and connoisseur Joseph “Consul” Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto’s works was sold to King George III in 1762.
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