Charles Seely, MP for Lincoln, was a wealthy corn-merchant from that city, and commissioned 50 watercolours of Venetian subjects from Foster circa 1870. The commission fee was #5,000 (#100 per drawing) making it the largest commission he ever received and one he was working on from 1871 until early 1877 (see J. Reynolds, Birket Foster, 1984, pp. 136-7). According to Reynolds (op. cit., p. 200), the collection was dispersed soon after 1928. The majority of the watercolours, however, seem to have been acquired by the British Printing Corporation, and the collection remained substantially intact until sold in these Rooms on 14 June, 21 October and 1 November 1966.

The present watercolour, of the standard Seely size and in the original frame, shows figures on the Ponte de la Paglia in front of one of the celebrated sculptural groups that adorn the four corners of the Doge's Palace. This one, 'The Drunkenness of Noah', also appears in two watercolours in the recent exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, Visions of Venice, one by J. F. Lewis (no. 15, repr. p. 42) and the other by J. Ward (no. 83, repr. p. 91)