Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute

Turner drew on his considerable experience as a marine painter and the brilliance of his technique as a watercolorist to create this view wherein the foundations of the Venetian palaces seemingly merge into the lagoon waters by means of delicate reflections. He based the composition on a rather slight pencil drawing made during his first trip to Venice in 1819 but the painting is really the outcome of his second visit in 1833. He exhibited this canvas to wide acclaim at London’s Royal Academy in 1835.