If you look at the skyline of Dresden with the Hofkirche and the Frauenkirche from the banks of the River Elbe in Neustadt up the river, you face the famous "Canaletto-view". This view owes its name to the painting by Canaletto which is exhibited in the picture gallery "Gemäldegallerie Alte Meister", situated nearby. Bernardo Bellotto, who sometimes named himself Canaletto, was born in the first half of the 18th century in Venice and painted extremely realistic city views of Vienna, Turin, Warsaw and also of Dresden. In 1747 he was invited to become court painter in Dresden for the first time. During the Seven Years' War in whose course Saxony was occupied by Prussian troops, Canaletto painted in Vienna and Munich, but he returned to Dresden in 1761. Later he emigrated to Warsaw.