Ruskin does have some positive things to say about Canaletto. He had in 1838 in Loudon's Architectural Magazine defended Canaletto's perspective, and appears there to refer to him as 'one our favourite masters' (See Works, 1.223). At the end of his life he admitted to admiring the good workmanship of Canaletto's paintings of Venice in the National Gallery, 'whereas so much of Turner's work is going to rack and ruin' ( Works, 3.216 and Works, 34.454). However the tone of his reported admiration of Canaletto, particularly in the report of the conversation as printed in Works, 34.454, is that of an old man who has the licence to say the paradoxical.