Throughout his career as a painter, Edward Cooke travelled extensively in Europe, visiting France, Holland, Italy, Spain, North Africa and Scandinavia. Paintings and drawings resulted from all his travels, but it is evident that the places that provided the strongest fascination for him besides the southern coastline of England were the beaches and estuaries of Holland and the topography of Venice and Italy.

Cooke’s first visit to Venice was in 1850 and he returned there a further nine times before his last visit in 1877. It was on his second trip to Venice in 1851 that Cooke met and became friends with the critic John Ruskin.

This rapid drawing shows the Piazzetta dei Leoncini from the Bacino. In the foreground is a gondola in bow view with others moored beyond. Around the Piazzetta to the left is part of the facade of the Biblioteca Marciana, flanked by one of the two columns dominating the Piazza San Marco. The campanile and part of the façade of the basilica are beyond, with the Torre dell’Orologio visible between them in the distance.