What links artist Canaletto and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

What links the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a painting by Canaletto? The answer: a rather impressive 18th century building in London, known as the Ranelagh Rotunda.

In 1742 Ranelagh opened as one of the most popular pleasure gardens in Chelsea. Outdoor spaces like these were immensely popular among London’s fashionable society. Visitors would come together to socialise and enjoy the variety of entertainment the gardens offered.

Despite its lush outdoor setting, the main attraction at Ranelagh was actually a vast circular building – the Ranelagh Rotunda. A space designed not only for its visitors, but also for music!

Canaletto and the Ranelagh Rotunda

Just over a decade after the gardens opened Canaletto painted the rotunda in ‘London: Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh’. Made almost entirely of wood, the rotunda had an internal diameter of 150 feet − similar in size to the Royal Albert Hall today.

The painting captures the monumental architecture of the space. It transports us back in time to the lively, bustling atmosphere of the rotunda.

Men, women and children are scattered across the scene, as if on an enormous stage. They spend the day promenading through the space and enjoying dining in the rotunda’s 100 private supper-boxes.

In the far right of the painting an orchestra is playing. They fill the cavernous building with music and capture the attention of the stylish clientele.

What’s the connection to Mozart?

Live music was immensely popular at the rotunda in the mid-18th century. Audiences could attend balls, masquerades and concerts. These were performed by celebrated musicians and composers of the day.

One such musician was a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart performed at various venues during his time in London on his Grand European Tour. On 29 June 1764, audiences flocked to hear him perform in a charity concert at the Ranelagh Rotunda − when he was just eight years old!

Bringing the music of the rotunda and Mozart to life

This connection between the rotunda and Mozart has inspired the creation of a new soundscape for Canaletto’s painting.

In 2025 the Gallery launched a new digital experience – National Gallery Imaginarium. It’s a space for audiences to engage with the nation’s paintings in fresh and unexpected digital ways. Expanding on this, the Gallery has released a new series of soundscapes, produced by award-winning sound designer Nick Ryan, to accompany 20 paintings in the National Gallery Imaginarium.

The soundscape brings Canaletto’s work to life by combining the sounds of a lively social setting with contemporary music.

It features reverberant acoustics that reflect the rotunda’s grand wooden interior. Imagine the small orchestra playing the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 – a piece composed by Mozart in the same year that Canaletto created this painting.

What happened to the rotunda?

Unfortunately, the popularity of pleasure gardens declined in the late 18th century. The Ranelagh Rotunda was closed in 1803 and demolished two years later.

Although we cannot visit the Ranelagh Rotunda today, we are able to piece together what it might have been like inside. Using new digital experiences, we can glimpse some of what Canaletto and Mozart may have experienced themselves.