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 drawing was made on the same visit. Dated 10 November 1851, the time of ‘aqua alta’, the seasonal flooding of the city, it shows the Piazzetta dei Leoncini partly under water and plays upon the reflections of light and architectural forms in the water. To the left is the façade of the Doge’s Palace, flanked by the column supporting the emblem of Venice, the lion of St Mark. In the distance is the outlined profile of San Giorgio Maggiore.