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 > Ancona to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Views of Approaching the Ponte Felice near Borghetto 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Views of Approaching the Ponte Felice near Borghetto’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
Three Views of Approaching the Ponte Felice near Borghetto 1819
D14791
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 110 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘71’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVII 71’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Beyond Narni, Turner’s route to Rome continued south towards the next two post stages, Otricoli and Borghetto, where the Via Flaminia crossed the River Tiber at the Ponte Felice.1 The artist made a number of swift sketches between Narni and Borghetto. The likely chronological sequence of these views within the sketchbook is folio 71 verso (D14792), 71 (D14791) and 70 verso (D14790).
This page contains three sketches drawn with the sketchbook held vertically like a notebook. Each scene depicts the approach towards the Ponte Felice and Borghetto beyond, with the furthest view at the bottom and the closest at the top. The shaky and uncertain nature of Turner’s lines suggests they were probably drawn from the moving carriage.

Nicola Moorby
November 2008

1
The post stage itinerary was published in Reichard’s Italy, London 1818, pp.301 and 330. See Turner’s own copy (Tate, Turner Bequest CCCLXVII).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Three Views of Approaching the Ponte Felice near Borghetto 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-three-views-of-approaching-the-ponte-felice-near-borghetto-r1138954, accessed 24 April 2024.