Bernardo Bellotto was a nephew and pupil of Giovanni Antonio Canal, and has sometimes been referred to, like his uncle, as Canaletto. In 1742 he sojourned in Rome and subsequently spent time in Lombardy, Florence, Turin, and Verona. In 1746 he was summoned by Augustus II, elector of Saxony, to Dresden, where he worked as a painter to the court. After the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, he worked in Vienna for Empress Maria Theresa from 1758 through 1760, and later in Munich. On his return to Dresden he was unable to secure anything more than a modest position as a teacher of perspective in the art academy. In 1766 he therefore moved to Warsaw, where he was appointed court painter to Stanislaus II, king of Poland, in 1768.

Bellotto’s poetic realism continues to stamp the image of the cities he painted. These depictions were of invaluable assistance in the rebuilding of Dresden and Warsaw after their near-total destruction during the World War II.