The present work derived from a watercolour by Patrick Procktor drawn from a window of the Monaco Hotel looking across the Grand Canal.

Procktor graduated from the Slade School of Art in London in 1962. Alongside his friend and contemporary, David Hockney, he was an integral part of the artists, designers and musicians who defined London’s cultural scene in the 1960s and 70s. In 1964, he was included in Bryan Robertson's groundbreaking Whitechapel gallery exhibition, The New Generation, which feature the work of twelve young artists including Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, John Hoyland and Bridget Riley.

Procktor first visited Italy in 1962 after winning the Abbey Minor scholarship at the Slade, which granted him a £250 travel grant - the start of a long affiliation with the country. In 1971, he had his first exhibition in Venice after gaining the attention of siblings Gabriella and Paolo Cavallino, gallery owners in Venice. Procktor was to exhibit with them for the following decade. Gabriella recalled:

'Both my brother and I were struck by the quality of his work: his personal view of an “English way of living”, full of irony and skill' (quoted in Ian Massey, Patrick Procktor: Art and Life, Unicorn Press 2010, p. 135).

This edition, an Artist's Proof, comes from the Estate of Richard Shepherd, C.B.E (1945-2022) - renowned Michelin-starred chef who joined forces with Michael Caine and Peter Langan in 1977 to run Langan’s Brasserie in Mayfair, at its peak the most fashionable destination in London. Caine recalled, “After a few months of working with [Langan] I realised I needed a chef who was not only brilliant but also sober, which was how Richard Shepherd became the chef and third partner at Langan’s.” A wonderful drawing of the three of them by Hockney in 1973 was sold at Sotheby's London (26 June 2018, lot 24). After Langan’s death in 1988, Shepherd took over the running of the business. He co-founded the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and was awarded a CBE for services to the catering industry in 2000.