A Capriccio of a ruined classical Arch by the Venetian Lagoon with Fishermen

A variant in a horizontal format is in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan (A. Morassi, Guardi, Venice, 1973, I, p. 443, no. 713; II, fig. 675); in that picture the pair of figures in the lower centre is omitted and the composition is extended to the left. A drawing in the Museo Correr, Venice (A. Morassi, Guardi. Tutti i disegni, Venice, 1975, pp. 164-5, no. 487, fig. 484), identified by Morassi as a study for the Milan painting, is clearly rather a study for the present work, with which it corresponds exactly. Filippo Pedrocco and Dario Succi (in the catalogue of the exhibition Guardi, metamorfosi dell'immagine, Castello di Gorizia, June-Sept. 1987, pp. 202-3, nos. 15-16) date both the Correr drawing and the Milan painting to the 1770s.

The ruined classical arch recurs in different settings in several other capricci, most notably the signed picture of similar size in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Morassi, op. cit., 1973, I, p. 447, no. 734; II, fig. 669).