In 1725 Canaletto met two British residents, the art impresario Owen McSwiney and the merchant Joseph Smith. McSwiney invited him to participate in a project to furnish English houses with large, imaginary landscape paintings, and also ordered a number of small topographical paintings on copper, likewise for the English market. McSwiney, however, was soon supplanted as Canaletto's 'manager' by Joseph Smith. Besides small paintings for the market, Smith commissioned a series of six large canvases from the master showing freely conceived, theatrical views of Piazza San Marco and its surroundings intended for his own house, followed by a number of views of the Grand Canal.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	The Grand Canal near the Ponte di Rialto 1725 Oil on canvas, 90,5 x 134,6 cm Private collection
	The Grand Canal from Rialto toward the North 1725 Oil on canvas, 89,5 x 131,5 cm Private collection
	Doge Palace c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 65 x 86 cm Columbia Museum of Art, Columbus
	Rio dei Mendicanti: Looking South c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 69,5 x 97,5 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Grand Canal: Looking North-East toward the Rialto Bridge c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 146 x 234 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Grand Canal: Looking North-East toward the Rialto Bridge (detail) c. 1725 Oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Entrance to the Grand Canal: Looking East c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 65 x 98 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola di San Marco c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 125 x 165 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	San Giacomo di Rialto 1725-26 Oil on canvas, 95,5 x 117 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	San Giacomo di Rialto (detail) 1725-26 Oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola di San Marco 1726 Oil on canvas, 90,5 x 136 cm Private collection
	The Grand Canal near Santa Maria della Carità 1726 Oil on canvas, 90 x 131,5 cm Private collection
	La Punta della Dogana (Custom Point) 1726-28 Oil on canvas, 46 x 62,5 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
	Grand Canal: The Rialto Bridge from the South c. 1727 Oil on copper, 45,5 x 62,5 cm Private collection
	The Stonemason's Yard 1726-30 Oil on canvas, 124 x 163 cm National Gallery, London
	The Stonemason's Yard (detail) 1726-30 Oil on canvas National Gallery, London
	The Grand Canal from Campo San Vio towards the Bacino 1729-34 Oil on canvas, 46 x 77,5 cm Royal Collection, Windsor
	View of San Giovanni dei Battuti at Murano 1725-28 Oil on canvas, 66 x 128 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
	Venice: The Piazzetta Looking South-west towards S. Maria della Salute 1725-30 Oil on canvas, 172,1 x 136,2 cm Royal Collection, Windsor
	The Piazzetta, Looking toward the Clock Tower 1726-28 Oil on canvas, 172 x 135 cm Royal Collection, Windsor
	The Piazzetta towards San Giorgio Maggiore c. 1724 Oil on canvas Royal Collection, Windsor
	Grand Canal: Looking North from Near the Rialto Bridge c. 1726 Oil on canvas, 150 x 197 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	Grand Canal: Looking from Palazzo Balbi c. 1726 Oil on canvas, 150 x 197 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	The Grand Canal 1728-29 Oil on canvas, 45 x 73 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence