Between October and December 1908, Monet and his wife Alice visited Venice, where they stayed on the Grand Canal. This composition depicts the Palladian monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, viewed from the window of their hotel room at the Hotel Britannia. It was painted in several sessions, probably during Monet's late afternoon 'quatriéme motif' between four and six o'clock. Purchased by Gwendoline Davies at Paris in 1912, this is one of the first Impressionist works to enter the Davies Collection.