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 Sketches of the Coastline near the Bay of Baiae, Including Torregaveta and Lake Fusaro; and Two Figures 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Coastline near the Bay of Baiae, Including Torregaveta and Lake Fusaro; and Two Figures’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Verso:
Sketches of the Coastline near the Bay of Baiae, Including Torregaveta and Lake Fusaro; and Two Figures 1819
D15736
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 89 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘GV’ top centre right, ‘B B and [?Cuma]’ underneath top sketch, ‘1’, within sketch bottom left, ‘2’ within centre sketch, and ‘3’ within sketch top right. Also ‘P’ and ‘D’ top right, parallel with right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The three landscape sketches on this page appear to represent views of the coastline between the Bay of Baiae and Cumae. The uppermost drawing depicts the watch-tower at Torregaveta, seen from Lake Fusaro, a stretch of water south of Cumae which is separated from the sea by a narrow stretch of coastline.1 The central vista meanwhile depicts Lake Fusaro from the hill of Torregaveta with the sea on the left and the lake in the centre. Turner made a copy of a similar view after John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831) in his Italian Guide Book sketchbook (Tate D13969; Turner Bequest CLXXII 20a). For related sketches see folios 82 verso–84, 85 verso (D15718–D15721, D15724; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 80a–82, 83a).
In the top right-hand corner of the page, parallel with the right-hand edge, are two rough figure studies.

Nicola Moorby
June 2010

1
Compare a drawing by Giacinto Gigante, Veduta della spiaggia di Cuma da Torregaveta (Certosa di San Martino, Naples), reproduced at http://www.civita.it/servizio/sala_stampa/il_reale_sito_del_fusaro_tra_cielo_e_mare, accessed June 2010. Also an engraving of ‘Il Fusaro’ in Bartolomeo Pinelli, Nuova Raccolta di Ventiquatrro Vedute de’Contorni di Napoli, Rome 1823.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Coastline near the Bay of Baiae, Including Torregaveta and Lake Fusaro; and Two Figures 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-sketches-of-the-coastline-near-the-bay-of-baiae-including-r1138197, accessed 19 September 2024.