Joseph Mallord William Turner Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819
D14663
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 6
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 6
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘The first bit of Claude’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVII 6’ bottom right
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘The first bit of Claude’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVII 6’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
2000
Pure as Italian Air: Turner and Claude Lorrain, Tate Britain, London, November 2000–April 2001 (no catalogue).
2002
Turner et le Lorrain, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, December 2002–March 2003 (40, reproduced in colour).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.520 as ‘Do. [Buildings on hill.] “The first bit of Claude” (probably distant view of Loreto).’.
1966
Lawrence Gowing, Turner: Imagination and Reality, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1966, p.16.
1969
Graham Reynolds, Turner, London 1969, p.110.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1972, p.119.
1974
A. [‘Fred’] H.G. Bachrach, Turner and Rotterdam: 1817 – 1825 – 1841, Netherlands [circa 1974], p.18 note 14.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, p.[158].
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, pp.5, [120] under no.331.
1983
Michael Kitson, ‘Turner and Claude’, Turner Studies, vol.2, no.2, Winter 1983, p.11 note 45.
1982
Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, p.25.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.185 under no.331.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.94 note 118, 96, 407, reproduced pl.26, as ‘Osimo from the road from Ancona, with the towers of the Palazzo Comunale and cathedral’.
1985
Jack Lindsay, Turner: The Man and His Art, London 1985, p.96.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.[29], reproduced plate 23, as ‘The first bit of Claude’.
1987
Andrew Wilton, Turner in his Time, London 1987, p.122.
1989
Jeremy Robinson, The Light Eternal: A Study of J.M.W. Turner, Kidderminster 1989, p.37.
1990
Kathleen Nicholson, Turner’s Classical Landscapes: Myth and Meaning, Princeton 1990, p.245.
1997
James Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997, p.148.
1991
Peter Galassi, Corot in Italy: Open-air Painting and the Classical-Lanscape Tradition, New Haven and London 1991, p.84.
1998
Richard P. Townsend, Andrew Wilton, David Blayney Brown and others, J.M.W. Turner: ‘That Greatest of Landscape Painters’: Watercolors from London Museums, exhibition catalogue, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa 1998, p.7.
2002
Ian Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, no.40, pp.94 reproduced, 191, as ‘ “The first bit of Claude”; a view of Osimo on the road from Ancona (with views of Loreto and Campocavallo on the left-hand page)’.
2004
Christopher Wynne, J.M.W. Turner (Lifelines), Munich, London and New York 2004, p.34.
2006
Andrew Wilton, Turner in his Time, revised ed., London 2006, p.114.
2008
Nicola Moorby, ‘Un tesoro italiano: i taccuini di Turner’, in James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner e l’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 2008, pp.100, 105 note 13.
2009
Nicola Moorby, ‘An Italian Treasury: Turner’s sketchbooks’, in James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner & Italy, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2009, pp.113, 154 note 14.
After a sustained period of travel along the east coast from Rimini, Turner’s route towards Rome turned inland at Ancona and began to follow a south-westerly course towards the Apennine Mountains. Many of the urban settlements in this part of Italy were built upon high ground and Turner made a number of sketches of the hilltop towns and cities he glimpsed as he travelled through the landscape of the Marche region of Italy. The order of these drawings within the beginning of this sketchbook does not appear to follow a strict geographical sequence.
Cecilia Powell has identified the subject of this sketch as the hill town of Osimo, as seen from the road south of Ancona with the towers of the Palazzo Comunale and the cathedral. A similar view can be found on folio 7 (D14665).
The inscription in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, ‘The first bit of Claude’, commemorates a significant moment for Turner. It represents the first instance during his Italian tour in which the terrain through which he was passing reminded him of the work of his greatest artistic hero, the French landscape artist, Claude Lorrain (circa 1600–1682). Many of Turner’s preconceived notions regarding archetypal Italian scenery had been formed in relation to Claude’s idealised paintings and he continued to look for Claudian references throughout his travels in Umbria, the Alban Hills and the Roman campagna. See also Turner’s description of the colours and characteristics of the region on the inside front cover of this sketchbook (D40929) and another inscription in the Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate D13908; Turner Bequest CLXXI 26a).
Nicola Moorby
November 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www