Joseph Mallord William Turner A Grove of Trees with a Distant View of a Mountain Beyond, ?between Lakes Albano and Nemi 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
A Grove of Trees with a Distant View of a Mountain Beyond, ?between Lakes Albano and Nemi 1819
D15327
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 18
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 18
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Novr 10 1819’ top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘18’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 18’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘18’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 18’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.536 (as ‘Pine trees on summit of a hill – “Nov. 10, 1819” ’).
1925
Thomas Ashby, Turner’s Visions of Rome, London and New York 1925, p.13.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, p.[158].
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.384 no.731.
1981
William Chubb, ‘Turner’s “Cicero at his Villa”’, Burlington Magazine, vol.123, July 1981, p.418.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.177 note 29, 194 note 102, 196 note 110, 262 note 123, 472 note 7, 497 note 102.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.[36] note 6, 78 note 23, [88] note 78, 89 note 81.
2000
David Hill, Joseph Mallord William Turner: Le Mont-Blanc et la Vallée d’Aoste, exhibition catalogue, Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta / Musée Archéologique Régional, Aoste 2000, p.295.
Groups of tall cypress trees and stone or umbrella pines were some of the natural features which characterised the landscape in this part of Italy, as described by Thomas Jones in the 1770s:
About Frescati, Albano, Castello, L’aricci, Gensano &c are to be seen Groves and Walks of the finest and most luxuriant forest Trees imaginable – The Ilex, Chessnut, Plane, Oak and Wallnut grow to an Amazing Size, to which we may add the Noble Pines & Cypresses which are planted in the Gardens & Vineyards. – The Waters of the two Lakes, still & transparent – reflect as in a murrour, the verdure of their shady Margins.1
The location for this sketch may be the wooded hills which separate Lakes Albano and Nemi. Turner travelled south from the former towards Ariccia, Genzano and Nemi. For a discussion of the inscribed date on this page see the general introduction to the sketchbook.
Nicola Moorby
May 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘A Grove of Trees with a Distant View of a Mountain Beyond, ?between Lakes Albano and Nemi 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www