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 Sections of Ruins and the Aurelian Walls, Rome 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sections of Ruins and the Aurelian Walls, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 74 Recto:
Sections of Ruins and the Aurelian Walls, Rome 1819
D15437
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 73
Pencil and blue watercolour on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘73’ top left, ascending left-hand edge and ‘301’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 73’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three distinct views which appear to have been executed extremely swiftly. The two uppermost scenes appear to depict the characteristic square towers of sections of the Aurelian Walls, with parts of an aqueduct running over the top. The subject of the sketch at the bottom is currently unidentified although it appears to show an extensive group of ruins, possibly the Baths of Caracalla. Cecilia Powell has argued that the uneven and rough nature of these sketches suggests they may have been drawn from a moving vehicle.1 This would certainly explain the need to capture quick impressions of different scenes on the same sheet.
This page also contains patches of blue watercolour.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

1
Powell 1984, p.472 note 11.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sections of Ruins and the Aurelian Walls, 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-sections-of-ruins-and-the-aurelian-walls-rome-r1132732, accessed 25 April 2024.