'Distant View of Naples from Posillipo', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Distant View of Naples from Posillipo

From Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXXXVI

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 113 x 189 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D16048

Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 70 a

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 72 Verso:

Distant View of Naples from Posillipo 1819

D16048
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 70 a

Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The subject of this sketch is a distant view of Naples, identifiable by the small headland of Castel dell’Ovo extending into the sea below the Pizzofalcone Hill. The vista is taken from the Posillipo Hill to the west and Turner’s viewpoint appears to be near the monument known as Virgil’s Tomb (in present-day Parco Vergiliano).1 This was an established vantage point,2 and the same umbrella pine tree can be seen in a more detailed drawing in the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16143; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 55). See also a related study on folio 15 (D15936).

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

NB. Not to be confused with Parco Virgiliano, also known as the Parco della Rimembranza, near Marechiaro and Gaiola.

Compare, for example, a drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Naples and Mount Vesuvius from above Virgil’s Tomb 1816 (Library of the British School at Rome), reproduced in Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5.43, p.271.

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.