Francesco Casanova was born in London, where his parents were touring, and spent his youth in Venice. The influence of Venetian art was an important feature of his work. In the Mémoires of his brother Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, it is said that in Venice he studied drawing with Giovanni Antonio Guardi during a 10-year period ending around 1749. The Fortune-teller (c. 1749; Rome, private collection) may be among Francesco's earliest surviving works. In Venice he made copies after the work of the history and battle painter Francesco Simonini who probably taught him in Florence from around 1749. Two years later he moved to Paris but in 1752 left for Dresden, where he came into contact with the work of Charles ...