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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Gulf of Naples Seen from Vesuvius 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
The Gulf of Naples Seen from Vesuvius 1819
D15648
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 46
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘46’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 46’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a series of sketches of Naples and the surrounding landscape as seen from the ascent to the summit of Vesuvius, see folio 46 verso (D15645; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 44a). This rough pencil study is one of a number of similar on-the-spot views to depict the semi-circular sweep of the Bay and Gulf of Naples looking west/south-west from the slopes of the volcano.1 The buildings in the bottom right-hand corner are unidentified.

Nicola Moorby
May 2010

1
For a similar view compare John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831), City of Naples from Vesuvius 1778–9 (Tate, T08509).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Gulf of Naples Seen from Vesuvius 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-the-gulf-of-naples-seen-from-vesuvius-r1138110, accessed 29 March 2024.