Although Guardi is best known today as a vedutista, or viewpainter, the British aristocrats on their "Grand Tour" preferred the near-photographic precision of Canaletto's views to take home as souvenirs.
Made around the time Rembrandt turned sixty, in 1666, the view of the painter at work complements the great 1658 self-portrait at the Frick, in which he seems a grand but old and discouraged lion.