A condensed excerpt from The Royal Academy Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters, by Elizabeth Einberg

Canaletto, arguably the greatest view painter of the 18th century, spent most of his working life in his native Venice. The son of a distinguished designer and painter of stage scenary, Canaletto (1697-1768) began his career in that profession, but soon abandoned it for painting views after nature.

To this he brought an unprecedented ability to master illusionistic aerial perspective and to bathe his views brilliant Italian sunlight.

From the 1720s his works were avidly collected by the rich, mostly British, visitors who flocked to Venice on their Grand Tour. Yet as the War of the Austrian Succession began to spread across Europe after 1741, the number of visitors to Venice declined. Canaletto's sound business sense is thought to have prompted his decision to move to London, not only to find new clients but also to invest his money in what was rapidly becoming the largest and most vibrant commercial centre in Europe. Canaletto arrived in London in May 1746 and, with the exception of two visits to Venice in 1750-51 and 1753-54, remained here until 1755.

Among the two dozen or so views of London that Canaletto produced during this period, this is one of the largest and most spectacular. It commemorates the last remnant of Stuart Whitehall before its demolition in 1750, to be replaced by the present New Horse Guards (which Canaletto also painted).

The decayed brick buildings are flanked by the proud new structures of the Georgian age: the Admiralty on the left, with the spire of St Martin's behind, and, on the right, a glimpse of the York Buildings water tower and William Kent's Treasury, with the grand residences of Downing Street in the foreground. Peopled with innumerable precisely characterised figures, both rich and poor, with the Guards drilling on the parade ground, servants going about their business, men relieving themselves against any available wall and children playing by the Canal, St James presents a delightfully well-observed slice of daily life in London.

For more from this essay + footnotes, and more, buy the book: Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. You can purchase this book from all good bookshops, or you can get a discount online at Amazon.

Reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Originally published in "Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection" © 2003 Royal Academy of Arts, London.