Giovanni Antonio Canal, il Canaletto (Venice 1697-1768)

The church on the left appears to be of Canaletto's invention. It is surrounded by little houses, and on the right men labour on scaffolding to repair a ruined arch. Canaletto's drawings can be divided into his strictly topographical views, preparatory drawings for paintings or engravings, and more free-style invented compositions based loosely on Venetian and Roman motifs of which this drawing is an example.
Links compared this drawing, which cannot be related to a painted composition, to the Capriccio with the Rialto Bridge in the British Museum (op. cit., no. 766, pl. 144), believing both to be late works, perhaps made after the artist's return to Venice in 1756.