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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Rome from the Janiculum, with the River Tiber 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 78 Recto:
View of Rome from the Janiculum, with the River Tiber 1819
D15445
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 77
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘77’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 77’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century visitors to Rome, part of Turner’s exploration of the city included the panoramic views seen from certain elevated vantage points. One of the most famous of these was the Janiculum Hill (or Gianicolo), a ridge of high ground to the west of the River Tiber which offered sweeping vistas across the historical centre of the capital. The details of this prospect are very rough but the recognisable line of the river and the sloping hill on the right suggests that his viewpoint here was the Janiculum looking south. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 77 verso (D15444; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 76a).
For further sketches from the Janiculum see folio 39 verso-40 (D15369–D15370).
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Rome from the Janiculum, with the River Tiber 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-rome-from-the-janiculum-with-the-river-tiber-r1132740, accessed 29 March 2024.