Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore

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Artist: J. M. W. Turner (British, 1775–1851)
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: overall: 91.5 × 122 cm (36 × 48 1/16 in.); framed: 126.37 × 156.21 × 15.88 cm (49 3/4 × 61 1/2 × 6 1/4 in.)
Museum: National Gallery of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

We look across a glittering waterway lined with long, low boats and sailboats at an ivory-white church in the distance to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy white clouds sweep across the brilliant azure-blue sky above. A row of buildings comes into view lining the canal to our right, with a terracotta-orange building followed by a cream-white building beyond, both angled toward the church. The church has a high dome rising over the temple-like front, which has columns supporting a triangular pediment.

A tall bell tower rises to the left of the church. The low boats, gondolas, to our left are packed with people while a few gondolas floating in the center of the canal appear occupied only by their gondoliers who stand holding their poles. Painted in tones of ivory and peach, the sails of boats behind the gondolas to our left billow in the breeze while the sails of vessels docked to our right are furled. The structures, boats, and people cast shimmering reflections on the gently rippling surface of the water in the canal. Rows of boats and buildings lining the canal extend into the deep, hazy distance to our left.