Piazza San Marco, Venice — Renoir, 1881, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Art Postcard

Pierre-Auguste Renoir traveled through Italy in 1881 and stood in front of St Mark's Basilica long enough to bring back this Piazza San Marco: pigeons rise from the square, travellers cross in front, and the byzantine façade sits in bright light. The painting is held in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. As a postcard, it works for a friend on a Venice trip, for the wall of a small travel collection, and for the page of a journal that already has a gondola sketch and is waiting for the building. Browse the full Renoir postcard collection.