William Callow R.W.S. 1812-1908

This early work dates from Callow's first trip to Venice in the summer of 1840.  At the time he was living in Paris where he had taken over a studio from Thomas Shotter Boys and built up a large and successful teaching practice among the French nobility. He was accompanied on his trip to Italy by his friend, Mr Forman, who had been with him on his tour through Switzerland two years previously.  After leaving England the pair travelled though France and Switzerland before crossing the Simplon Pass into Italy.   After visiting the Great Lakes they travelled to Padua and took the 'malle post' to Mestre where, in Callow's words 'we embarked in a gondola, traversing several miles over the lagoons, and arrived in the evening at the steps of Hotel Europa, delighted with our first view of the Queen of the Adriatic'  (see Jan Reynolds, William Callow, 1980, p.75) They stayed in Venice for ten days during which time Callow made many sketches, including another version of the present work (ibid, no.44), before leaving 'with great regret' and returning to Padua