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 > Pompeii, Amalfi, &c., Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, including Cetara, and Part of a View of Salerno 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, including Cetara, and Part of a View of Salerno’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, including Cetara, and Part of a View of Salerno 1819
D15825
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Aritta Erritta’ bottom of sketch top right
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘48’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 48’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains multiple sketches relating to the rugged stretch of coast between Salerno and Amalfi. Turner’s viewpoint is from a boat out to sea and this explains the rapidity and sequence of views as one scene is quickly succeeded by another. The study across the bottom of the sheet represents Cetara, a small town west of Vietri sul Mare, whilst above this is part of a composition depicting the Bay of Salerno which continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 47 verso (D15824). The group of images at the top meanwhile depicts one or more of the sixteenth-century watch-towers (also known as the Torri Saracena or Saracen Towers) which lie at intervals all along this part of the Amalfi coast. Further sketches documenting the sea journey from Salerno to Sorrento can be found on folios 47 verso–67 (D15824–D15861).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, including Cetara, and Part of a View of Salerno 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-amalfi-coast-from-the-sea-including-cetara-r1138292, accessed 24 April 2024.