SOLD OUT !
Queen‘s House, Greenwich
A Curator-Led Visit & Demonstration of
Canaletto’s Use of the Camera Obscura
with
Professor Philip Steadman
Architect and Author of Canaletto’s Camera
Dr Allison Goodie
Curator
Dr Maya Wassell Smith
Assistant Curator
This exclusive members‑only event offers the opportunity to step inside England’s first Classical building, designed by Inigo Jones and inspired by the Renaissance architecture of the Veneto and Andrea Palladio, for a fascinating afternoon at the Queens’ House concluding with tea on the balcony. Small groups will be led by a team of curators to explore the house and some of the highlights of its collection, followed by a demonstration on how Canaletto may have used the camera obscura to achieve the remarkable precision of his celebrated views of London and Venice.
Professor Philip Steadman – Emeritus Professor of Urban and Built Form Studies at University College London. He trained as an architect and has taught at Cambridge University and the Open University. In the 1960s he edited and published Form, a quarterly magazine of the arts, and co-authored a book on kinetic art. He helped to produce four computer-animated films on the work of Leonardo da Vinci for an exhibition in London in 1989. In 2001 he published Vermeer’s Camera (Oxford University Press), on the Dutch painter’s use of the camera obscura. His latest book, Canaletto’s Camera (UCL Press), published in 2025, is a kind of sequel.
Dr Allison Goudie – Curator of Art Pre-1750 at Royal Museums Greenwich. Prior to this, she worked as a curator at the National Gallery, London, the National Trust and Kenwood House. She completed her PhD at Oxford in 2014 on portraits of Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, and held, among other research fellowships, a Rome Award at the British School at Rome.
Dr Maya Wassell Smith – Assistant Curator of Art at Royal Museums Greenwich, working primarily with the Decorative Arts. She has previously held positions at Newham Borough Collections, SS Great Britain Museum, and Leeds Museum and Art Galleries. She completed her PhD in 2026 on sailors’ craftwork in the long nineteenth century.
A join event with The Venice in Peril Fund
Photo credits: By Bill Bertram – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=691705