In 1959, Piper began painting views of Venice as a commission for a solo exhibition at London’s Arthur Jeffress Gallery. Having read and admired the writings of John Ruskin and Adrien Stokes who provided intimate views of the city, Piper sought to celebrate Venice’s ancient Renaissance design with extraordinary and unique vitality. The pale Istrian stoned buildings of the San Marco piazza are portrayed with a shimmering pale light with occasional bursts of colour: an approach markedly different from Turner and Monet’s vivid depiction of the same subject. David Frasier Jenkins and Hugh Fowler Wright comment on Piper’s practice during this time: ‘With tones of grey replacing colour, an emphasis on a close view of the stone surfaces, and detail disappearing in to the medium, Piper, like Stokes, created a Venice that seemed not only alive but poised at the point of coming into being’ (D. Fraser Jenkins and H. Fowler Wright, The Art of John Piper, London, 2015, p. 312).