'The Gardens of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, from the Organ Fountain', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

The Gardens of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, from the Organ Fountain

From Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXXIX

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 112 x 186 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D14994

Turner Bequest CLXXIX 37

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 37 Recto:

The Gardens of the Villa d’Este, Tivoli, from the Organ Fountain 1819

D14994
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 37

Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘37’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 37’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This sketch depicts part of the sixteenth-century Villa d’Este, in Tivoli. The view looks south across the gardens towards the casino from the Organ Fountain, a hydraulic water feature which was designed to push air through a series of pipes to emit sound. The tall circular structure behind the fountain is the apse of the Church of San Pietro alla Carità. In the top right-hand corner is a smaller sketch of another detail of the gardens.

For a full discussion of Turner’s sketches of the Villa d’Este see folio 5 verso (D14942).

Nicola Moorby
January 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.