# English Landscape Capriccio with a Column **Canaletto** (Italian, 1697–1768) c. 1754 oil on canvas overall: 134 x 106.4 cm (52 3/4 x 41 7/8 in.) framed: 151.8 x 126.4 x 6.4 cm (59 3/4 x 49 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.) Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1964.2.1. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.47179.html). ## About this work A capriccio is a view that never existed, assembled from real and invented elements, and here Canaletto combines an English landscape of green hills, a weir and a winding river with a free-standing column and ruins in the Italian manner. Figures go about their day: a man walks towards us with a basket and dead fowl, a woman sits on the step at the column’s base, an angler waits at the water’s edge. Canaletto painted it during his years in England, around 1754, when he produced both views and fantasies for British patrons; the warm, even light and crisp detail remain thoroughly Venetian. _Written by Ochre Editions._ Canaletto painted this in about 1754, aged 57. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ### What you’re looking at We look slightly down across a sun-drenched plaza with people scattered among ruins, buildings, and around a free-standing column in this vertical landscape painting. The people we can see have light skin. Towering trees with celery, sage, and forest-green leaves frame a small plaza paved with flax-colored stones. A tree to our right almost reaches the top of the painting, and a shorter tree in front of it has toppled onto the plaza. To our left, in the lower corner, a man sits behind a shadowy balustrade, looking down. In the lower center of the painting, a man walks toward us, holding a basket over one arm and dead poultry in the other hand, and a dog sits nearby. Slightly farther back is a tall stone column with a door in its base and a statue on top. A woman wearing a red shirt and blue skirt sits on a step in front of the door. Along the left side, the plaza gives way to a tree-lined, dirt road that meanders toward a stone arch in the middle distance, and to a cluster of low buildings beyond. Two towers catch the light, one with a slate-blue dome and the other with a peach-colored steeple. Farther back from the buildings is a dark line of trees at the base of a steep green hill dotted with groves of trees, which rises high over the plaza below. Another building complex, glowing in warm tones of straw yellow, sits at its top. Small dots of red, white, and blue suggest a handful of people making their way up the hill’s wide path. A river with moss-green water pouring over a dam extends from the lower right corner into the distance along the right edge of the painting. Near the column, a man fishes at the water’s edge. The water winds back to a row of silvery-gray buildings in the far distance. Several people in red, yellow, or white, tiny in scale, dot the riverbanks and cross the bridge. A screen of thin, pale pink clouds float across the light blue sky. _Description from the National Gallery of Art._ ### How it was made - **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled. ### [Canaletto](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/canaletto) Italian, 1697–1768; born in Venice; died in Venice Canaletto, the son of a Venetian painter of theatre scenery, turned in the 1720s to painting views of his native city and became its leading vedutista. British travellers on the Grand Tour were his most eager patrons, many through the merchant and consul Joseph Smith. When war cut off that trade he went to England, working there from 1746 to the mid-1750s on views of London and country houses such as Warwick Castle. He also made a set of etchings that includes imaginary views. _Written by Ochre Editions._ ## Facts - Type: Painting - The artist was 57 - Real size: about 53 × 42 in (134 × 106 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 24 × 36 in, so every print is a reduction. - Century: 18th century - Subjects: exterior - Colour: olive - Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose. ## Get it - Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1527.jpg?dl=1 - Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1527/1920.jpg - Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108 - Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258 - Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148 - Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5 Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/english-landscape-capriccio-with-a-column-nga-47179).