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 View of St Peter's and the Vatican, Rome from the South, with the Janiculum Hill 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of St Peter's and the Vatican, Rome from the South, with the Janiculum Hill’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
View of St Peter’s and the Vatican, Rome from the South, with the Janiculum Hill 1819
D15443
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘76’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 76’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is a view looking north towards St Peter’s and the Vatican with the Janiculum Hill on the west (right-hand side). Visible in the distance is the heights of Monte Mario crowned by trees and the Villa Mellini. Turner’s location is not conclusively identified although it appears to have been a point on the Via delle Fornaci. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 76 verso (D15442; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 75a). For further sketches from the Janiculum see folio 39 verso-40 (D15369–D15370).
A separate sketch along the top of the page appears to show part of the skyline of the city with distant mountains beyond.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of St Peter’s and the Vatican, Rome from the South, with the Janiculum Hill 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-st-peters-and-the-vatican-rome-from-the-south-with-r1132738, accessed 26 April 2024.