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 ?Villas in San Rocco di Capodimonte; and a View of Naples from Capodimonte 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Villas in San Rocco di Capodimonte; and a View of Naples from Capodimonte’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Verso:
?Villas in San Rocco di Capodimonte; and a View of Naples from Capodimonte 1819
D15691
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 66 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘St Rock Naples’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The villas and houses within this landscape sketch remain unidentified. However, Turner’s inscription in the bottom right-hand corner suggests that it may depict a view of San Rocco di Capodimonte, an area to the north of the city near the Palazzo Reale on the Capodimonte Hill.
Further sketches have been drawn on the left-hand side of the page, parallel with the spine. These include a view of Naples from Capodimonte, looking south across the city towards Sant’Elmo, the coastline and the island of Capri. Above this meanwhile is a more detailed study of the line of buildings silhouetted along the shoreline from the same viewpoint. For related views see folio 69 (D15692; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 67) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16110–161111; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 22–23). Compare also a near-contemporaneous drawing by James Hakewill, Naples and the Island of Capri from Capo di Monte (British School at Rome Library).1

Nicola Moorby
June 2010

1
See Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A Catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5.40, p.267, reproduced.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘?Villas in San Rocco di Capodimonte; and a View of Naples from Capodimonte 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-villas-in-san-rocco-di-capodimonte-and-a-view-of-naples-from-r1138151, accessed 26 April 2024.