Follower of Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas has been lined; there are visible old stretcher marks. There has been extensive thinning of the paint layer in the sky and the water and as a result augmentation of these areas has taken place which is visible under U-V light. The thinness of the paint layer extends to the foreground, particularly to the darker passages. The remains of a patchy varnish in the foreground is also visible under U-V light."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The composition is based on Canaletto's original formerly in the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, 10 Downing Street, London, and sold Paris, Hôtel Georges V, Ader Tajan, 15 December 1993, lot 13.¹  When part of Walpole's collection, and until the 1930s, Canaletto's original was accompanied by a pendant depicting the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge which was sold in these Rooms on 7 July 2005, lot 47, for a record price of £18,600,000.²

1.  See W.G. Constable, J.G. Links (ed.), Canaletto, Oxford 1976, vol. II, pp. 361-62, no. 340, reproduced vol. I, plate 64.
2.  Idem, vol. II, pp. 290-91, no. 216a.