Venice, the Church of Santa Lucia on the Grand Canal

The church of Santa Lucia on the Grand Canal occupied a site on the northern bank opposite San Simeone Piccolo until it was demolished in 1861 to provide the site for the Stazione di Santa Lucia, which still bears its name. This Kenwood House veduta from 1755 thus serves as an inadvertent historical document: the painter recording with routine topographic accuracy a building that would be swept away a century later in the name of modern transport. Guardi could not have known he was creating a unique record of an irreplaceable structure, but his systematic survey of Venice's built fabric has become invaluable for architectural historians studying the city's appearance before the railway transformed its western entrance. The companion view at Kenwood of San Simeone Piccolo shows the opposite bank of the same stretch of canal, and the pair was likely commissioned together to give a comprehensive view of this particularly active section of the waterway. Lord Iveagh's bequest of Kenwood and its contents to the nation in 1927 preserved both paintings in perpetuity.

The now-vanished church facade is rendered with enough architectural precision to serve as a historical record while maintaining Guardi's characteristic atmospheric softness. The Grand Canal's water traffic provides the animated foreground typical of his canal views. The palette reflects the warm afternoon light that falls along this stretch of the canal.