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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Albano, Nemi, Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Albano, looking towards Monte Cavo and Rocca di Papa 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Albano, looking towards Monte Cavo and Rocca di Papa’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Lake Albano, looking towards Monte Cavo and Rocca di Papa 1819
D15303
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the ?artist in pencil ‘5’ top right and by the artist ‘Roca dela Papa’ in the sky top left and ‘P D’ and ‘[?12[ |[?B ...] | W [?4] | Red F’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner circled Lake Albano and made sketches from several different points. This view shows the eastern end of the lake from the ‘galleria di sopra’, the higher of two tree-lined roads which led from Albano to Castel Gandolfo. The peak in the background is Monte Cavo and Turner has also noted the location of the town of Rocca di Papa.1 The three figures in the bottom right-hand corner wear long robes and one appears to be carrying a cross suggesting that they might be nuns. It is probable therefore that Turner’s viewpoint may have been near the monastery of Palazzolo. It is not clear to what the colour notes and other inscriptions refer.
For a full discussion of Turner’s depictions of Lake Albano see folio 3 verso (D15301) and the general introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

1
A similar view can be seen in a drawing by Charels Joseph Lecointe, see Francesco Petrucci e Susanna Marra, Vedute dei Colli Albani e di Roma dall’album di viaggio di Charles Joseph Lecointe (1824–1886), exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia 2006, no.13, p.31, reproduced.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Lake Albano, looking towards Monte Cavo and Rocca di Papa 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lake-albano-looking-towards-monte-cavo-and-rocca-di-papa-r1132598, accessed 26 April 2024.