A drawing of the island of Sant' Elena in Venice. The monastery of Sant' Elena is shown in the centre of the drawing. The foreground depicts part of the Canale di Sant' Elena.

The monastery of Sant’ Elena, seen from the west in RL 7488, is here seen looking south from Isola di San Pietro. The sparsely populated Lido runs along the entire horizon, with the church of Santa Maria Elisabetta at far right. The drawing is a masterpiece of monochrome wash, with the strongly lit monastery standing out against the overcast background. For some reason Canaletto decided to scratch out two of the boats with which he populated the broad Canale di Sant’ Elena, and the areas of roughened paper at far left and to the right of centre have thus soaked up more wash and appear darker than their surroundings.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005