The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore

Venice comes alive in this 1834 painting by J. M. W. Turner, showing the busy spot where the Grand Canal opens into the wide lagoon. The domed church of San Giorgio Maggiore floats in the distance, while on the right sits the Dogana, the old customs house crowned by a golden weathervane figure. Boats with rust-colored sails cluster together on the water, gondolas glide past one another, and everything is bathed in the warm, hazy glow that Turner adored.

An English painter who made several trips to Venice, Turner was drawn to the city's misty light and glittering reflections, which suited his way of working perfectly. Instead of carefully outlining every brick and rope, he let his colors bleed and shimmer into each other, giving the whole scene a soft, dreamlike quality. This loose approach was ahead of its time and would go on to shape the Impressionists decades later.

Turner made the picture for a patron and exhibited it at the Royal Academy in London, where crowds hungered for romantic scenes of distant places. Most people who saw it would never travel to Venice themselves, so a canvas like this offered them their only glimpse of the floating city, warmed by an Italian sun they could only imagine.