Finberg (Venice, 1930, p.23) considered that all the watercolours made in Venice in 1819 were done from memory, except this one which 'may have been painted direct from nature. ... As a study it was perhaps the most useful drawing Turner made in Venice on this occasion, as it fixed upon his mind for the remainder of his life that vision of a city of gleaming marble rising from the sea which we find in his later paintings.'