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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Town of Nemi from across Lake Nemi 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
View of the Town of Nemi from across Lake Nemi 1819
D15331
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Cave’ within sketch bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘20’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch shows the town of Nemi and the northern tip of the lake of the same name as seen from the road leading towards Genzano. On the right-hand side of the landscape is a thicket of pine and cypress trees, a characteristic feature of the Alban hills, see folio 18 (D15327), and possibly the same grove visible in folio 19 (D15329).
Turner has also made a separate study in the bottom left-hand corner of the page which may be a smaller version of the same view. The composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 19 verso (D15330).
For a general discussion of Turner’s view of Lake Nemi see folio 19 (D15329).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Town of Nemi from across Lake 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-of-the-town-of-nemi-from-across-lake-nemi-r1132626, accessed 28 March 2024.