A slightly sketchier version of this composition is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and another was sold at Sotheby's, London, 15 December 1954, lot 97, A. Morrassi, Guardi, tutti i disegni, Venice, 1975, nos. 588 and 589, the first illustrated, fig. 591. They are related by Morassi to a painting in a private collection, Bergamo, of about 1775, A. Morassi, Guardi, Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Venice, 1973, no. 828, fig. 754. The number of painted and drawn versions of this composition (Morassi, op. cit., 1973, figs. 751-2, and 755) attest to its popularity. The very pictorial use of wash and the framing lines strongly suggest that this drawing was intended as an independent work of art, rather than as a preparatory study for a painting