This is one of a series of twelve views by Canaletto of the Grand Canal which are all the same format. The pictures form the basis of the fourteen engraved plates in Visentini's 'Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum' (Venice, 1735), thus providing an uncontested date for completion. It is thought that they originated in the years around 1730. The paintings were all acquired by George III with the collection of Consul Smith.

Ca' Foscari here occupies the right foreground: we are looking south from the Volta del Canal, in front of Palazzo Balbi. Beyond Ca' Foscari are Palazzo Giustinian and Palazzo Nani, followed by Ca' Rezzonico with its temporary pitched roof. Then comes the tower of Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni, and the façade and belltower of Santa Maria della Carità, either side of the rigging of a tall ship.

To the left, brightly lit, is the austere Tuscan-style façade of Palazzo Moro-Lin (of unusual width and known as dalle tredici finestre, 'of the thirteen windows'), built in 1671-3 by the Florentine Sebastiano Mazzoni for the painter Pietro Liberi. Next to it are the low buildings of Campo San Samuele (now occupied by Palazzo Grassi), and Palazzo Malipiero with a large white awning.

Canaletto has significantly widened the canal and has straightened the left bank. A corresponding sketch of the buildings from Ca' Rezzonico to the Carità is in a private collection, apparently a sheet from a sketchbook. Levey deduced from the two statues visible on the right-hand pinnacles of the Carità, neither of which is present in the following painting, that this was one of the earliest compositions in the Grand Canal series. Canaletto was often scrupulous in recording changes in the details of a building, but he would also take liberties to create his own compositions, and the evidence of the statues should be treated with caution.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005