'Distant View of Vesuvius, from Via Posillipo', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Distant View of Vesuvius, from Via Posillipo

From Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXXXIV

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 122 x 197 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D15669

Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 56 a

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 58 Verso:

Distant View of Vesuvius, from Via Posillipo 1819

D15669
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 56 a

Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The subject of this sketch is Vesuvius (and Monte Somma) and part of the Sorrentine peninsula, seen from the Via Posillipo, a new road built during the early nineteenth century which stretched between Mergellina and the Capo di Posillipo. Some of the arches which supported the road within the steep tufa cliffs can be seen on the far left-hand side. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be looking east from a small villa, one of a number built along this part of the coast. The headland of Castel dell’Ovo in Naples is also visible in the distance on the left. A small plume of smoke rises from the crater of the volcano. For further views from the Via Posillipo see the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D16070–D16077; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 81a–85) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16094–D16096, D16106; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 7–9, 18).

Nicola Moorby
May 2010

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.