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 > Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Formia with the Torre di Mola; and a View of the Gulf of Gaeta 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Formia with the Torre di Mola; and a View of the Gulf of Gaeta’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Verso:
Formia with the Torre di Mola; and a View of the Gulf of Gaeta 1819
D15612
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 28 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Golf Gaeta’ bottom centre of top sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s route to Naples took him through Formia, a small port on the Tyrrhenian coast which during the nineteenth century was known as Mola di Gaeta. The lower sketch on this page depicts the view along the seafront at Formia, towards the distant round tower, the Torre di Mola. As the artist’s inscription indicates, the upper sketch meanwhile represents a wider view of the Gulf of Gaeta, looking east with the Arunci mountains in the distance.

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Formia with the Torre di Mola; and a View of the Gulf of Gaeta 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-formia-with-the-torre-di-mola-and-a-view-of-the-gulf-of-r1138074, accessed 23 April 2024.