Palaces on the Grand Canal

This watercolour is one of seven topographical continental views that are particularly small and framed together in the Lady Lever collection. 'Palaces on the Grand Canal' was probably copied by an anonymous artist from a steel engraving by William Smith after Prout's original view in the second of Robert Jennings's 'Landscape Annuals' published in 1830. The central building in this view is the late 15th-century Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza and once contained 17 paintings by Titian (about 1488 – 1576) which are now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg. The watercolour version of this subject by Prout is very similar except for a covered gondola in the foreground,