This download features 100 hi-res images, in jpeg format, by the artist Canaletto.

The images are all 600dpi and range in size from 2955 pixels wide/tall to 12026 pixels wide/tall.

The pictures are out of copyright and in the public domain, so you are free to use them in whatever way you’d like, including commercial use.

Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), commonly known as Canaletto, was an Italian painter from Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.

A Painter of cityscapes of Venice, Rome, and London, he also painted imaginary views (referred to as capricci). In the period from 1746 to 1756, he worked in England, where he painted many views of London and other sites, including Warwick Castle and Alnwick Castle. He was highly successful in England, thanks to the British merchant and connoisseur Joseph "Consul" Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto's works was sold to King George III in 1762.

He was born in Venice to Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym Canaletto ('little Canal'), and Artemisia Barbieri. Canaletto served an apprenticeship with his father and his brother as a theatrical scene painter.

Much of Canaletto's early artwork was painted 'from nature', differing from the then customary practice of completing paintings in the studio. 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's early works remain his most coveted and, according to many authorities, his best. One of his early pieces is The Stonemason's Yard (c.1725), which depicts a humble working area of the city.

Later, Canaletto painted grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the Doge's Palace. His large-scale landscapes portrayed the city's pageantry and waning traditions, making innovative use of atmospheric effects and strong local colours. For these qualities, his works may be said to have anticipated Impressionism.

Many of his pictures were sold to Englishmen on their Grand Tour, first through the agency of Owen Swiny, and later the banker Joseph Smith. It was Swiny in the late 1720s who encouraged the artist to paint small topographical views of Venice with a commercial appeal for tourists and foreign visitors to the city. Some time before 1728, Canaletto began his association with Smith, an English businessman and collector living in Venice, who was appointed British Consul in Venice in 1744.

In the 1740s, Canaletto's market was disrupted when the War of the Austrian Succession led to a reduction in the number of British visitors to Venice. Smith also arranged for the publication of a series of etchings of 'capricci' (or architectural fantasies) but the returns were not high enough, and in 1746 Canaletto moved to London, to be closer to his market.

He remained in England until 1755, producing views of London (including several of the new Westminster Bridge, which was completed during his stay) and of his patrons' houses and castles.

After his return to Venice, Canaletto was elected to the Venetian Academy in 1763. He continued to paint until his death in 1768.

His students included his nephew Bernardo Bellotto.