Francesco Lazzaro Guardi was a Venetian painter. He was born in Venice into a family of lesser nobility from Trentino. His father Domenico (born in 1678) and his brothers Niccolo and Gian Antonio were also painters, the latter inheriting the family workshop after the father's death in 1716. His sister Maria Cecilia married the important Veneto-European painter, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Guardi's painterly style is known as "pittura di tocco" (of touch) for its small dotting and spirited brush-strokes. A stronger attention to colors is present in his later works.

Francesco Guardi died at Venice in 1793.