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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Vesuvius from Posillipo 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
Distant View of Vesuvius from Posillipo 1819
D16065
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 79
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘79’ bottom left, inverted, and ‘245’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 79’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made numerous studies of the scenery to the west of Naples and in this sketch Vesuvius and the Sorrentine peninsula are seen from the coast of Posillipo. The precise location and the building in the centre of the composition are unidentified but Turner’s viewpoint appears to be near to the Capo di Posillipo.

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Distant View of Vesuvius from Posillipo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-distant-view-of-vesuvius-from-posillipo-r1137989, accessed 19 September 2024.