In 1833 Alt travelled with his father for the first time to Italy: 'Im Jahr 33 sah ich die italienischen Städte Verona, Vicenza, Padua und Venedig das erste Mal - ich kann nicht schildern, welchen Eindruck besonders letztere auf mich gemacht hat - die ganze Romantik derselben glaubte ich aufsaugen zu müssen' (In the year 33 I saw the Italian cities of Verona, Vicenza, Padua and Venice for the first time - I cannot describe what an impression particularly the latter made on me - I felt I had to absorb its whole romanticism) (Catalogue of the Exhibition, Rudolf von Alt, Albertina, Vienna, 1984, p.39). Our watercolour conveys the lasting impression which the light and colours of Venice made on him, without losing the clarity and exactness of his personal style.

A compositional predecessor to our work is Blick vom Kapuzinerberg auf Salzburg of 1830 (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, inv. no. 45.179). It is a view from a slope with figures in a grassy field among low trees and bushes in the foreground, overlooking the river Salach and Salzburg beyond. A later related watercolour is Blick auf Wien vom Krapfenwald of 1872 (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, inv. no. 45.594) where Vienna is overlooked from a vineyard on the opposite side of the city. The vibrancy of the colours of our work are, however, dulled in this later work, which emphasizes the architectural features in the watercolour.