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 Four Sketches in the Roman Campagna; Including the ?Acqudotto Felice and the ?Junction of the Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Sketches in the Roman Campagna; Including the ?Acqudotto Felice and the ?Junction of the Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Verso:
Four Sketches in the Roman Campagna; Including the ?Acqudotto Felice and the ?Junction of the Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova 1819
D15410
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 59 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘T[ri] on the [...]’ bottom right of second sketch from top
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The rough and jagged lines of these landscape sketches suggest that they might have been drawn from a moving vehicle. Turner often drew swift impressions of the horizon in this way as he travelled from place to place. The individual subjects have not been conclusively identified although the sketch at the top may represent the medieval tower of the Acquedotto Felice and the second drawing from the top may depict the coat of arms commemorating the opening of the Via Appia Pignatelli, and the junction with the Via Appia Nuova. The remaining studies probably represent parts of the Aqua Claudia, the aqueduct built by the Emperors Caligula and Claudius, with views of the Roman Campagna and distant mountains.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Sketches in the Roman Campagna; Including the ?Acqudotto Felice and the ?Junction of the Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova 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-four-sketches-in-the-roman-campagna-including-the-acqudotto-r1132705, accessed 20 September 2024.