Tote Bag – Claude Monet, Grand Canal, Venice

Venice, Monet once told his wife, was ‘too beautiful to paint’. But when he accepted the invitation of an American friend to stay at her rented palazzo on the Grand Canal in 1908, he set to work, painting thirty-seven canvases over the course of his visit. This view, taken from the boat landing of the Palazzo Barbaro, captures the baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute and its reflection dancing on the water. Unlike many painters of Venetian views, Monet showed less interest in representing famous monuments than in capturing the play of light and reflection on the city’s waterways.

Claude Monet
French 1840–1926
Grand Canal, Venice 1908 (detail)
oil on canvas
73.7 x 92.4 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bequest of Alexander Cochrane (19.171)
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission. All Rights Reserved.