A turn of the century inscription on the relining canvas attributes the painting to 'Bernardo Canal the younger Canaletti'; there are no grounds, however, for that attribution, and Canaletto's authorship of the present picture has never been questioned. It is characteristic of Canaletto's work in England in the first half of the 1750s in style, tonality and format, the latter indicating that it was intended for a specific architectural setting along with other canvases which have not been identified. A more precise dating is suggested by the appearance of a very similar oriental in an exotically decorated boat in the lower right corner of one of the Lovelace capricci (Constable no. 473; exhibited New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Canaletto, 1989-90, pp. 256-7, no. 75, illustrated in colour), another of which is dated 1754.

A previously unknown preparatory drawing was sold in these Rooms, 4 July 1984, lot 82 (fig. a; Constable, op. cit., ed. 1989, revised by J.G. Links, I, pl. 240; and II, p. 745, no. 825*). An earlier stage in the development of the composition is represented by a drawing last recorded in 1971 (ibid., no 823). Two painted variants in an upright format are known, one corresponding fairly closely except in the boats and figures and in an oval format is in an English private collection (ibid., no. 511a; no. 6 in the 1985 Agnew's exhibition cited above, illustrated), the other with more significant differences and showing the pavilion in a better state of repair, possibly reduced in size, is in the Baltimore Museum of Art (Constable no. 511c; Barcham, op. cit., no. 20, illustrated). A small horizontal variant with the composition extended to the left is on loan from the Morrison Collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Constable no. 512; Stein, op. cit., no. 17, illustrated in colour); this has an inscription on the relining canvas indicating that it was originally signed on the back and dated 1754, which would seem to confirm that this is the correct dating for all the variants.