J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches of the River Aniene near Rome; One with Ponte Nomentano 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Two Sketches of the River Aniene near Rome; One with Ponte Nomentano 1819
D40079
Pencil on white wove paper, 259 x 406 mm
Inscribed by unknown hands in pencil ‘20’ bottom left, parallel with left-hand edge
This page contains two views of the River Aniene which meets the Tiber in the north-eastern outskirts of Rome. The lower vista depicts a general view of the meandering course of the river whilst the uppermost study depicts Ponte Nomentano, an ancient bridge which spans the Aniene approximately three miles north-east of the city walls, and approximately one mile upstream from the Ponte Salario. Turner’s viewpoint is from the south with the Sabine mountains in the far distance. For a general discussion and further sketches of Ponte Nomentano see folios 39 and 40 (D16127, D16128).
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Technical notes:
This drawing, not recorded by Finberg,1 is the verso of D16129 (Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 41). Long detached from the Naples, Rome C. Studies sketchbook, the sheet was perhaps once folio 41 (see the concordance in the introduction).

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.556.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Sketches of the River Aniene near Rome; One with Ponte Nomentano 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-sketches-of-the-river-aniene-near-rome-one-with-ponte-r1132392, accessed 19 March 2024.