Canaletto, Syon House, 1749. © Collection of the Duke of Northumberland

Sarah Allen relishes the opportunity to get up close to some fine works by a Venetian who was much loved by eighteenth century English connoisseurs of art.

The prolific output from Venetian artist Canaletto’s nine-year sojourn in London is the subject of a new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.

‘Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad’ runs until April 15 2007 and offers a rare chance to see some 39 paintings, many privately owned. Visitors are also given the opportunity to nose right up to the pictures and take in the detail and the lightness of touch lost in a more distant contemplation.

The paintings include views of London, of England and of Italy (painted from memory), and his fantastical ‘capricci’ (imaginary views). As well as the paintings, there are 15 works on paper – sketches Canaletto made to explore subjects, as aide-memoires – often hung next to the corresponding paintings.

The appropriately named Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), known as Canaletto, came to the attention of the British art buying public when his Venetian views, like his most famous depiction of the Grand Canal, became the souvenir for the Grand Tourist.

A prolific producer, he ultimately appears to have flooded the market. At the same time, his primary audience stopped coming to Italy once the War of the Austrian Succession started.

Canaletto, Capriccio, a Palace with Clock Tower and Roman Arch. © His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle

It seems possible that Canaletto, maybe on the advice of the many patrons he had amassed, decided to come to them instead. London did offer him a subject in some ways familiar, but also a subject which was exciting and glamorous: a city being built, just becoming the skyline we recognise today.

Curiously, in chasing his clientele to London, Canaletto shows an entrepreneurial spirit echoed most recently by those notorious Young British Artists.

The name Canaletto is inseparable from images of Venice, and the artist is often charged with painting London as Venice, with being over-stylised and deliberate. This exhibition does much to challenge that view, offering instead a definitely ‘Canalettian’ view of London. He painted here, for example, on a grey ground (the Italian views were painted on red) – arguably a nod, albeit subtle, to our distinctively British northern light.

Many of these scenes have a new energy and wit. The vast Old Horse Guards from St James’s Park (1749) is a brilliant topographical survey of the Office of the Paymaster General, the back of Downing Street and so on. Most interesting are the details which caught his eye: the conversation between servants, the house being aired, the two men urinating against the astonishingly detailed wall. One senses that Canaletto was entertained and invigorated by London.

Canaletto, London, The City seen through one of the Arches of Westminster Bridge, c. 1746. © Collection of the Duke of Northumberland

This energy is also palpable in the other most successful image in the exhibition. The City seen through an arch of Westminster Bridge (1747) shows London under construction, and specifically, an engineering sensation.

The view of the Thames is framed by an arc of timber scaffold over which each arch of the bridge was constructed, the dark semi-circle echoing the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance set against a vivid sky.

The busy, boat-strewn river is flanked by red and yellow brick buildings and Wren’s spires. And from the bridge hangs a bucket which both establishes the grand scale of Westminster Bridge, the wonder of the work, and introduces a personal note into the story of the creation of the city.

Given Canaletto’s productivity, the lack of biographical detail in his paintings remains odd. This ‘sober Italian’ is curiously absent from his work – perhaps his reputation and marketing skills removed the need for him to sell himself, too. Old Walton Bridge (1754) is the exception, depicting another manufacturing marvel – the (briefly) widest bridge span in Europe – and also an image of the artist himself, painting in the foreground.

Dulwich Picture Gallery makes a good venue for this exhibition, with its themes of construction and grand building . The train journey between central London and leafy suburb is quite poignant: as the route reverses from the muted tones of the Dulwich Picture Gallery the landscape ricochets between thoroughly ‘Canalettian’ London vistas and graffiti-tattooed estates and rusting cars.

Reflections on the state of the city aside, this account of Canaletto’s stay in the capital offers an excellent chance to delve into his vision and encounter its humour and whimsy, as well as his astonishingly precise eye. Though his London is one of blue skies and the optimism and confidence of an age apart, it is a valid contribution to the body of artistic representations of the city and, as such, should not be missed.