Canaletto and his Rivals

I've always liked the Italian painter Canaletto a lot, so today I went to the National Gallery to see the exhibition Canaletto and his Rivals. It was small but, as usual, the few things you have to see, the better you appreciate them and trust me it was really worth it. You cannot even imagine the details he was able to represent, so tiny and so precise at the same time. I honestly think that all his rivals efforts to reach his level were vain. Nevertheless I have to admit that I enjoied Francesco Guardi's paintings, he seemed to have a kind of personal style, even if the subject and historical period coincided (please take a look at them in an exhibition or a book, there's no way to find a decent image online!). For anyone who could be interested, it lasts til the 16th of January.

One last comment. Why paintings of an Italian city by an Italian painter has to be exhibited in all the cities of the world but in Italy? Am I too patriotic maybe?


Canaletto, 'The entrance to the Grand Canal, looking East, with Santa Maria della Salute', 1744, the Royal Collection 2010, Her Majesty
[from National Gallery]