Frank Salmon: That spacious city

Lecture by Frank Salmon, University of Cambridge

When, in 1746, Canaletto arrived in London - Europe’s largest city and leading economic centre – he found a wealthy clientele already familiar with his Venetian views through the Grand Tour. The chronicler George Vertue indeed recorded that Canaletto (“a sober man turned of 50”) had been encouraged to emigrate by “the prospects he might make of Views on the Thames.” Yet London also exposed him to England’s distinct architectural taste in the precocious form of neo-classicism known as Palladianism, led by Lord Burlington. One of Canaletto’s first London patrons, the Duke of Richmond, had freshly rebuilt his Thames-side house to Burlington’s design, while Canaletto also painted several views of Old Somerset House, attributed to Inigo Jones and regarded a founding example of English Palladianism.

This lecture examines the extent to which Canaletto did, or did not, document an architectural development already recognised elsewhere in Europe as innovative. With few personal records surviving, it is Canaletto’s paintings and drawings that must do the talking. These will be considered within wider historical and visual contexts, focusing on London’s mid-century urban environment, its new architecture and its customs.

Der Vortrag von Prof. Frank Salmon ist Teil des Rahmenprogramms unserer aktuellen Sonderausstellung Canaletto & Bellotto, vom 24. März bis 6. September 2026 im Kunsthistorischen Museum.

Begrenzte Teilnehmer*innenzahl.
Für die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung ist ein gültiges Museumsticket sowie Ihre bestätigte Anmeldung notwendig. Für KHM-Jahreskartenbesitzer*innen, KHM-Ambassadors sowie ICOM-Mitglieder ist die Teilnahme kostenlos.