William Callow, R.W.S. (Greenwich 1812-1908 Great Missenden)

Callow revisted Venice a number of times during his life-time, exhibiting views of the city regularly at the Royal Watercolour Society. During his final excursion in 1892 he noted in his diary that 'On the evening of our arrival the hotel was serenaded by a party of singers in a gondola lit up by Chinese lanterns...- a fairy scene only to be witnessed in Venice. After a fortnight of perfect enjoyment, intermingled with the pleasures of sketching, spending our days chiefly in a gondola...we reluctantly left Venice' (W. Callow in H.M. Cundall (ed.), William Callow R.W.S., F.R.G.S.: An Autobiography, London, 1908, p. 145).