Approach to Venice
1844 · Oil on canvas · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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This print

About this work
- Artist
- J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)
- Year
- 1844
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 62 × 94 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Romanticism
A full moon shares the sky with the setting sun as a flotilla of barges and gondolas crosses the lagoon towards Venice, the city a luminous band on the horizon. When Turner showed the painting at the Royal Academy in 1844 he quoted Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in the catalogue: the moon is up, and yet it is not night; the sun as yet disputes the day with her. It belongs to the group of late Venetian views in which the city served as a pretext for colour and atmosphere, and Ruskin thought it the most perfectly beautiful piece of colour he had ever seen made by human hands. The picture passed through a string of English collections before Andrew Mellon bought it in 1923; it came to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1937.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A full moon and a setting sun over a lagoon of barges, the most purely coloured of the Venice views, for a bedroom, living room or bathroom at 16×24 or 24×36 in natural oak or black. A white, cream or dusty blue wall.
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1844)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Approach to Venice in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Approach to Venice painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
The full-bleed edition
The same plate printed edge-to-edge, filling the whole sheet — bold and immersive.


























