This and the following lot are hitherto unrecorded replicas of the pictures of similar size at Woburn Abbey (W. G. Constable, Canaletto, 1962, nos.263 and 287, pls.52 and 56), which form part of the series of twenty-two views and two larger festival subjects purchased by the fourth Duke of Bedford, payments for which are
recorded in 1733, 1735 and 1736.

There are slight differences between the present picture and its prototype in the number of windows on the house on the far right and in the position of the hand of the gondolier on the left, which in the Woburn painting passes in front of the mooring pole. In these respects, some of the known derivations (for instance that in a private collection, Toronto, see Constable, op. cit., under no.287a) correspond with the present picture rather than that at Woburn.

The present paintings, which would seem to be the work of one hand, must have been executed alongside the Woburn prototypes before those were shipped to England. Certain aspects of the technique, the windows painted wet on wet and the gondolas executed in grey over black are characteristic of Canaletto's style; in the absence of comparative material and the lack of knowledge of any assistant of the artist able to produce work of this quality, the present pictures may be hastily executed and abbreviated replicas by the artist himself