Portraits of a fantasy city

There are 13 Canalettos and 19 Guardis in our National Gallery; there are no paintings by either artist in the Rijksmuseum. The Dutch, having been painting landscape views for years, had enough of their own by the 18th century not to bother with Venice: canals were not exactly a novelty to them. So while the English went overboard for Venetian vedute, the Dutch politely ignored them. They can do so no longer, since a Venetian exhibition has opened on their doorstep.

Venezia! Art from the 18th Century is the third exhibition at Hermitage Amsterdam, the State Hermitage Museum’s latest European outpost in a converted 17th-century old folks’ home on the Amstel. Until work is complete, the space is small: just big enough to house a select display of 65 Venetian paintings, prints and drawings from the imperial collection started by Peter the Great, whose capital St Petersburg, reclaimed from the Neva swamps, has traditionally challenged Amsterdam for the title of Venice of the North.