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G. Links who noted that while Canaletto had been "manifestly a great artist [and] recognized as such by some of the best-informed connoisseurs of his time," the artist's "immense success had been due to this appeal to the most unsophisticated taste," namely the tourist. Featured works span the 18th-century, from one of the first accurately datable Venetian views by Luca Carlevarijs of 1707 to the death of Francesco Guardi in 1793. This view is from the bank of the River Thames, looking across a sprawling meadow towards Eton College on the horizon. Some of his later works do revert to this custom, as suggested by the tendency for distant figures to be painted as blobs of colour – an effect possibly produced by using a camera obscura, which blurs farther-away objects. Canaletto has captured the drama of the event, with spectators and architecture laid out at a steep angle that recedes sharply into the distance and focuses our attention on the race.

The Duke, then Lord John Russell, was in Venice on the Grand Tour in 1731, and presumably met Joseph Smith, Canaletto’s newly appointed agent, who was a Venetian resident and later British consul there. G. Links, included a "modest investment in [a] property which he had since 1750, and 28 unsold pictures. Having already helped to design and create the sets for operas by Fortunato Chelleri, Giovanni Porto, and Antonio Vivaldi, the 21-year-old Canaletto travelled with his father to Rome in 1718 to work on set designs for a series of Alessandro Scarlatti operas. Canaletto's superb mastery of perspective, a technique fostered under the Renaissance tradition of his native Italy, is also in abundant evidence. Lavishly decorated bissone (eight- or ten-oared boats) carry Venetian nobles, who recline on velvet cushions, and rowers in colourful uniforms.

The most spectacular piece in the show is the Courtauld Bag, made in Mosul (present-day northern Iraq) in around 1300-1330 for a noble lady of the Persian-Mongol court.

Venice’s reputation as a place of pleasure, with gambling houses and opportunities for drinking and partying, was another reason behind the city’s appeal. Major rivals on display include Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi. These works were bought by the young George III in 1762 from Canaletto's agent and dealer Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, along with the rest of Smith's huge collection. In particular, his precise use of correct perspective has led experts in the past to believe that much of the detail in his paintings had been achieved by tracing the image off a camera obscura. Spectators watch from the Macchina and cheer from windows hung with multi-coloured banners and from the vessels lining the banks of the canal.Once more, the theatrical element of the painting reflects Canaletto's early training, yet the vivid attention to fine detail in which he renders the landscape sets the bar for the rest of his career. The fine detail in Canaletto's renderings of architectural structures is attributed to his use of a camera obscura which enabled his to create traceable blueprints on which to build up his finely detailed topographies. Elegantly dressed Venetians and foreign visitors – like the trio at the bottom right – mill around the square, while government officials in black robes emerge from the Doge’s Palace.

Canaletto’s scenes from the late 1730s tend to have have a cooler, more wintry light, which we can see here – especially in the wispy pink clouds. Presenting the most important set of paintings of Venice by Canaletto (1697 – 1768), which have left their home at Woburn Abbey – one of world’s most important private art collections – for the first time in more than 70 years.

Such apocalyptic visions are important and we need to see them, but it does no favours to the placid, precise paintings of the Venetian master.

Canaletto's painting began to suffer from repetitiveness, losing its fluidity, and becoming mechanical to the point that the English art critic George Vertue suggested that the man painting under the name 'Canaletto' was an impostor. Indeed, Canaletto's reputation as a supreme draughtsman was enhanced by these pieces which were in very high demand amongst collectors.Canaletto altered the view to make a more dramatic composition: the facade of the Palazzo Querini detti Papozze, on the far right, is at a sharper angle here than in reality, the bridge is closer to us and the Cannaregio more open, making it easier to see the buildings on both sides. By the age of 18 he could already imitate his uncle’s style with extraordinary dexterity and increasingly sought to introduce 'improving’ flourishes of his own.