A drawing of two trees on the edge of a lagoon. To the left of the trees is a ruined building. Several figures stand or sit under the trees and look out towards the lagoon.

The drawing is unusual in Canaletto's oeuvre, both in the detailed depiction of a natural feature and in the extensive use of red chalk. The chalk was not added as shading or simply for colour, but was an extensive initial drawing probably executed in the open air, worked up later with pen and ink. At this later stage Canaletto added the building to the left, the foreground figures and the distant view of the lagoon, not indicated in the red chalk drawing but instead laid out quickly in pencil. The domes and belltowers on the horizon do not seem to be intended as specific Venetian buildings, attempting to identify a location for the view is probably futile.

Catalogue entry adapted from Canaletto in Venice, London, 2005