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

This sketch is part of a panoramic view of Naples from the east. Turner’s viewpoint is the shoreline known as the Marinella, near the Carmine castle (demolished circa 1900) and the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, on present-day Via Nuova Marina. The prospect looks west/south-west across the bay towards the headland of the Castel dell’Ovo and the port with the Mole lighthouse. Further right along the waterfront is the Castel Nuovo and the Immacolatella, the eighteenth-century quarantine station which still stands near present-day Molo Immacolatella Vecchia. Turner has included several figures roughly outlined on the quayside in the foreground and boats docked at the water’s edge beyond. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 49 (D15650; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 47). Related views can be found on folios 49 verso–51 verso (D15655–D15651; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 47a–49a), and for further similar studies see the Vatican Fragments sketchbook (Tate D15169; Turner Bequest CLXXX 33a) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16113; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 25).