Born Venice c1700, Died Venice 1785. A Venetian painter who carried out some fresco commissions, but better known as a painter of small genre scenes of contemporary patrician and low life. From the 1740s Longhi continued to paint Venetian interiors. Small, rarely taller than 65 cm they almost never show windows and are painted in clear, clean colours with the texture of the fabrics enlivened with flickering splashes of paint. His charming and satirical scenes were very popular, and he became a director of a private academy, as well as a member of the Venetian Academy.