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 Lake Agnano, with Camaldoli and Vesuvius in the Distance 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Agnano, with Camaldoli and Vesuvius in the Distance’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 75 Verso:
Lake Agnano, with Camaldoli and Vesuvius in the Distance 1819
D15704
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 73 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Road’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is Lake Agnano, a former crater lake in the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean or Burning Fields) which was drained in 1870. The prospect appears to look north-east from the slopes of the Solfatara crater towards the distant hill of Camaldoli on the left, and Vesuvius and Monte Somma on the right. The additional study in the bottom right-hand corner may represent the Grotto del Cane (Dog’s Grotto), so-called because dogs were traditionally used to demonstrate the effect of the poisonous fumes which arose from the cave. For further views see folios 75 and 76 verso–77 (D15703 and D15706–7; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 73 and 74a–75).

Nicola Moorby
June 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Lake Agnano, with Camaldoli and Vesuvius in the Distance 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-lake-agnano-with-camaldoli-and-vesuvius-in-the-distance-r1138165, accessed 16 April 2024.