A capriccio of a rustic tower beside a lake, with mountains beyond

Unlike his vedute, which were from the outset collected by visitors from abroad, Guardi's capricci seem to have been intended for a domestic Venetian audience. Instead of the imagined city ruins and grand, fictive arches that populate his architectural capricci, the present work is one of rural idyll, demonstrating the artist's talent for evoking the mountainous vistas surrounding the Venetian lagoon. Antonio Morassi (loc. cit.) found this small and spirited panel to be exquisite, and remarkable for its pictorial freshness ('Opera di notevole freschezza pittorica, squisita'), and dated it to the artist's mature years, by which time he was well-practiced in the capriccio formula. Here, Guardi renders every element of the scene with the freedom and vibrancy of brushwork for which he was so prized.

In 2021, Dario Succi (loc. cit.) published a larger, darker variant of the present work with a similar rustic tower motif and figures positioned on the waterline, which he dates to the first half of the 1770s.