'Hill Town on the Edge of the Campagna', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Hill Town on the Edge of the Campagna

Date ?1828

MediumOil paint on canvas mounted on board

Dimensionssupport: 410 x 594 mm frame: 518 x 700 x 35 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

N05526

On display at Tate Britain

Theme: Looking at the View

Room: Looking at the View

Display caption

While Turner seems hardly to have used oil during his first visit to Italy in 1819, he made a number of paintings in Rome again in 1828, including sketches on his characteristic canvas rolls, and other smaller ones on millboard, usually covered with muslin. Rome had long been a centre for outdoor painting, but now even more than before, Turner preferred to work in the studio, and while this tonal study of the Campagna swimming in hazy sunshine may have been observed from nature, his Italian sketches were generally composition studies. In later life, Turner effectively abandoned colouring outdoors in any medium.

August 2004