Capriccio with St Paul's Cathedral beside a Venetian Canal - William Marlow - Framed Picture 16" x 12"

William Marlow was an English landscape and marine painter and etcher.

Marlow spent five years as a pupil of the marine painter Samuel Scott.

He became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and from 1762 to 1764 contributed to their exhibitions in Spring Gardens.

He was employed in painting views of country houses. From 1765 to 1768, on the advice of the Duchess of Northumberland, he travelled in France and Italy. On his return to London he took up residence in Leicester Square, and renewed his contributions to the Society of Artists, of which was made a Fellow in 1771.

Marlow painted in both oils and watercolours, and drew marine and landscape scenes. He was influenced by Richard Wilson and Canaletto.

His subjects were generally British country scenes, but he painted some pictures from his Italian sketches, and etched some of the latter, as well as some views on the Thames. His views of the bridges at Westminster and Blackfriars in London were engraved.

Marlow contributed to an album of watercolours illustrating William Chambers's designs for buildings and improvements at Kew Gardens. In 1763 the pictures were engraved and published in a volume entitled Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew in Surrey, the Seat of Her Royal Highness, the Princess Dowager of Wales.

In an oil painting entitled Capriccio: St Paul's and a Venetian Canal, Marlow created an architectural fantasy in which Wren's cathedral was transferred to the Italian city.