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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, Seen from the North-East 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Verso:
Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples, Seen from the North-East 1819
D16009
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 49 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘1302’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is the distinctive star-shaped fortress of Castel Sant’Elmo which stands at the top of a hill above the Certosa di San Martino, part of which is just visible on the left. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be the Montesanto district to the north-east, perhaps from present-day Via Tarsia near the funicular station. The gate visible within the slopes below the castle may be the Porta Medina, demolished in 1873.

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples, Seen from the North-East 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2010, 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-castel-santelmo-naples-seen-from-the-north-east-r1137933, accessed 29 March 2024.