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 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Part of a View of Florence from Villa Palmieri; and a Smaller Sketch of the Same 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Part of a View of Florence from Villa Palmieri; and a Smaller Sketch of the Same’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Verso:
Part of a View of Florence from Villa Palmieri; and a Smaller Sketch of the Same 1819
D16615
Turner Bequest CXCI 77 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Olives’ within hills on right-hand side
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch represents part of panoramic view of Florence and the surrounding countryside from Fiesole. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 78 (D16616), and as Turner’s inscription in the bottom left-hand corner of that sheet indicates, his viewpoint is the Villa Palmieri in the south-eastern outskirts of the town. The vista looks south towards Florence and silhouetted along the distant horizon are the dome and campanile of the Duomo (Cathedral), the smaller dome of San Lorenzo and the Church of Santo Spirito. In the top right-hand corner of the page the artist has repeated a smaller study of the Villa Palmieri with its terraced gardens.
Further sketches from Fiesole can be found on folios 30 verso, 31, 74–77, 78 verso–79 verso, 84 (D16542, D16543, D16608–D16614, D16617–D16619, D16627).

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of a View of Florence from Villa Palmieri; and a Smaller Sketch of the Same 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-part-of-a-view-of-florence-from-villa-palmieri-and-a-smaller-r1138508, accessed 25 April 2024.