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

This page contains three variant views of Amalfi from the west. Turner appears to have arrived at the picturesque coastal town by boat but sketches such as these, and the ones on folios 55–56 (D15839–D15841), suggest that he disembarked for at least a short time and explored Amalfi and nearby Atrani on foot. His viewpoint for these prospects is the steep hill rising to the west of Amalfi. The uppermost vista depicts the campanile of the Church of San Biagio, whilst the remaining two scenes represent studies from the road to the twelfth-century Capuchin convent (present-day Grand Hotel Convento di Amalfi), see folio 34 verso and 45 verso (D15802 and D15820). The lower view looks across the bay of Amalfi towards a small spur of land topped by a round watch-tower, around which leads the road to Atrani.