Between 1850 and 1877 Edward Cooke produced several hundred sketches and oil paintings for exhibition at the Royal Academy, and for sale from his studio to private collectors and the London trade.

This painting is a view of the Bacino San Marco looking towards San Giorgio Maggiore, Santa Maria della Salute, The Molo, The Doges Palace and the Campanile de San Marco. The title given by Cooke which is probably incorrectly published in the Royal Academy catalogue is a quotation from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost Act IV Scene II, where Jaquenetta requests Holofernes to read her a letter from Don Adriano de Armado to which he returns Ah good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice.....Venetia, Venetia, Chi non ti vede, non ti pretia. It has been suggested this quotation may in fact be an Italian proverb which was first published by Floris in First Fruites, 1578
While painting in Venice, Cooke preferred the softer autumn light often choosing to work between September and November when the Venetian skyline was complemented by magnificent skies and sunsets. He would always always use the same gondolier who had the felze or cabin of his boat raised by 12 inches so that Cooke could paint more comfortably, and thus provided prospects of Venice denied to land-based artists. In addition, he painted views vedute of the other islands in the lagoons with attendant craft. Critics however, often observed his vedute were more portraits of sailing craft heavily laden with wood fuel or fishing nets with the splendour of Venice as a secondary attraction

The pseudonym Il Lagunetto suggests the artist's determination to rival Canaletto not only in painting the life of the Canals, but also to capture the unique fishing and trading boats of the lagoons.
We are grateful to John Munday for his help in preparing this catalogue entry, the painting for which is to be reproduced in his forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné on the Life and Works of E.W. Cooke