Venice and Japan each conjure up dreams of bygone times and of the splendour of closed courtly societies upon which we look from afar. An exhibition conceived in Britain and entitled: Canaletto and the Splendour of Venice is currently touring Japan. It unites a group of Venetian works from British and Japanese collections into a travelling show that introduces the eighteenth-century visions of the lagoon city to a wide Japanese audience. The tour started in Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (27 July-29 September 2024) and continued in the Sompo Museum of Art (12 October-28 December 2024) and the Museum of Kyoto (15 February-13 April 2025). Currently – and the last leg of the tour – it is in the Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum (24 April-22 June 2025).

I write about this because one of the Picture Gallery’s paintings is part of this one-year endeavour. It is the painting that stands at the beginning of each of these exhibitions. 'View of Venice from the Lagoon' by an unknown Netherlandish artist, painted around 1580, and one of the earliest extant views of La Serenissima. It gives a bird’s-eye view of the islands in the lagoon and is the perfect visual prelude, before zooming into Canaletto’s well-known street scenes and Grand Canal regattas.

I am just back from Japan and an exciting 10-hour truck ride between Kyoto and Yamaguchi with our painting – definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was also an experience to witness the professional care and efficiency of the Japanese art technicians and handlers, during transport and at the de-installation, packing, unpacking and reinstallation. It was a thing of beauty to see the Kaizen system in action, known primarily from Japanese car manufacturing it is the envy of many rivalling firms and constitutes the constant improvement of processes with the involvement and respect for the employee. Something every institution should strive for.

This is not the place to recount my adventures transporting art through Japan, but if you find yourself in Japan – maybe visiting the world trade fair in Osaka this year – do consider a trip to Yamaguchi (but maybe don’t take the truck).

Jacqueline Thalmann (Curator of the Picture Gallery).