Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas GirtinThe River Carizza at La Schaffa c.1794-8

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Artwork details

Artists
Thomas Girtin (1775‑1802)
Title
The River Carizza at La Schaffa
Date c.1794-8
MediumWatercolour on paper
Collection
Tate
Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D36500
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 22
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Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Folio 23 Recto:
The River Carizza at La Schaffa c.1794–8
D36500
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 22
Pencil and grey and blue-grey wash on white wove paper, 164 x 228 mm mounted on white cartridge paper, 368 x 480 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘22’ on mount, top right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXIV – 22’ on mount, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is taken from a drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) in Beckford Sketchbook IV, p.10; it is titled ‘La Schaffa, – The Ferry that crosses the Carizza between Evoli [Eboli] and Pestum’ and dated ‘Novr 7 [1782]’ (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester).1
Bell and Girtin had difficulty in identifying the place names in the title, and suggested that corrections to the inscription at a later date might have obscured more accurate information; they proposed that the ferry shown in this subject is the crossing of the Garigliano near Capua, used by Cozens and drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831) (see Smith’s Select Views in Italy (1796), pl.48).2 But there seems no reason to doubt that the names are indeed Eboli and Paestum.3
1
Bell and Girtin 1935, p.63 under no.297; Charles Nugent, British Watercolours in the Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester: A Summary Catalogue of Drawings and Watercolours by Artists Born before 1880, London and Manchester 2003, p.97.
2
See Bell and Girtin 1935, pp.69–70 under no.345.
3
As followed by Nugent 2003, p.97.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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