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 > Route to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Sketches of a Tower in a Landscape; Also a Copy of Titian's 'Pesaro' Altarpiece in the Frari, Venice 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches of a Tower in a Landscape; Also a Copy of Titian's 'Pesaro' Altarpiece in the Frari, Venice’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Three Sketches of a Tower in a Landscape; Also a Copy of Titian’s ‘Pesaro’ Altarpiece in the Frari, Venice 1819
D13917
Turner Bequest CLXXI 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 88 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘a Thistle with a Yellow flowr’ underneath second sketch from top, and colour notes (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘31’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXI 8’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two landscape sketches of a medieval tower and distant hills. The subject is unidentified although it almost certainly represents an Italian view seen during Turner’s 1819 tour of the country. A further sketch, probably of the same landmark beside a bridge, appears in the bottom right-hand corner, parallel with the right-hand edge.
Ian Warrell has identified the study at the bottom of the page as a schematic copy of Titian’s Pesaro Madonna (also known as the Ca’Pesaro Madonna), 1519–26, an altarpiece in the Frari Basilica (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari), Venice. Turner has annotated the drawing with colour notes: ‘Blue’ for the robe of the Virgin Mary, and ‘Orange’ for the kneeling figure below.

Nicola Moorby
March 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Three Sketches of a Tower in a Landscape; Also a Copy of Titian’s ‘Pesaro’ Altarpiece in the Frari, Venice 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-three-sketches-of-a-tower-in-a-landscape-also-a-copy-of-r1138735, accessed 19 April 2024.