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 ?Ruins on the Via Appia Antica, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Ruins on the Via Appia Antica, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
?Ruins on the Via Appia Antica, Rome 1819
D15388
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 48a
Pencil on white wove paper; fragment, made good with similar modern paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘48A’ bottom right, on stub of original page, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 48a’ top right of modern section of leaf, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch on this partial page has been drawn near the spine of the book. It appears to show several ruins and buildings and possibly depicts a section of the Via Appia Antica, although the exact location is not yet identified.
Technical notes:
The narrow fragment or stub of the original page, measuring 25 x 113 mm, has been set into a modern blank leaf, the rest having presumably been torn out and discarded at an early date. This page and folio 48 verso opposite (D15387) have both previously been assigned the Turner Bequest number CLXXXII 48a. D15387 is listed by Finberg as ‘48a’,1 the ‘a’ suffix being his usual means of indicating the verso of a leaf, whereas he omitted to mention the present drawing, and was possibly not aware of it, as the sketchbook was previously broken up and he does not clearly state its physical condition at the time he catalogued it. The surviving part of the original leaf is inscribed in pencil ‘48A’ (this ‘A’ indicating an addendum rather than a verso), while the modern repair is stamped ‘CLXXXII 48a’ at the corner, in sequence with the customary stamps on other pages, hence inadvertently duplicating Finberg’s number for D15387.
1
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.538.
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘?Ruins on the Via Appia Antica, Rome 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-ruins-on-the-via-appia-antica-rome-r1132683, accessed 20 September 2024.