Canaletto
Canaletto, real name Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768). Italian painter and his precise and highly detailed cityscapes, such as The Basin of San Marco (c. 1730), were inspired by the architecture of Venice. The British consul, Joseph Smith, sent many of his works to Britain and as a result Canaletto was commissioned to paint English country houses and views of London. These included Warwick Castle (1748) and London: Whitehall and the Privy Garden (1751).