Anon. Rialto Bridge, Venice after Samuel Prout

An original c.1830s watercolour painting Rialto Bridge, Venice after Samuel Prout.

An exquisite miniature view of the Rialto Bridge spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. Beautifully hand-painted in watercolour, this tiny painting—just 3.5 x 5.5cm—by an unknown hand displays remarkable skill.

This watercolour is after a larger work by Samuel Prout (1783–1852) which was reproduced as an engraved plate in 'The Tourist in Italy and Switzerland' by Thomas Roscoe, published in 1830. Prout was a master of watercolour architectural painting, Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV and, later, to Queen Victoria. His picturesque topographical drawings found huge influence as lithographic reproductions in the various illustrated travel books that had become so popular.

This iconic view in Venice is celebrated in Roscoe's 'The Tourist in Italy', where the author describes Venice's mythical status in the Romantic imagination: 'The magnificence of her edifices...correspond well with the associations which history and romance have spread around her.—"Her aspect is like a dream; and her history is like a romance".'

On paper laid down on backing paper. Please note the small size of this artwork.