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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Monro School c.1794-8 > Collaborations with Thomas Girtin for Dr ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin Posilippo: Buildings on the Shore c.1797

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin, ‘Posilippo: Buildings on the Shore’ c.1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Posilippo: Buildings on the Shore c.1797
D36549
Turner Bequest CCCLXXV 28
Pencil and grey and blue wash on white laid paper, 213 x 352 mm
Watermark ‘BUDGEN | 1797’
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXV – 28’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Provenance:
Probably commissioned by Dr Thomas Monro
Monro’s posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known)
Bought by or on behalf of Turner
A sketch by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) in Beckford Sketchbook, II, p.3 shows this subject though in a different composition. It is titled ‘From the Garden of the Villa at Pausilippo’ and dated ‘July 26’ [1782]; the buildings are noted: ‘The Promontery of Minerva – Isle of Capri – The king’s Villa – Church & Convent of Lanazzaro’ (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, D1975.5.3).1 Despite its unusual appearance and the use of laid paper, this sheet is almost certainly, like the other drawings in this group, the work of Girtin and Turner in collaboration.
1
Bell and Girtin 135, p.55 under no.232; Charles Nugent, British Watercolours in the Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester: A Summary Catalogue of Drawings and Watercolours by Artists Born before 1880, London and Manchester 2003, p.91, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Posilippo: Buildings on the Shore c.1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-thomas-girtin-posilippo-buildings-on-the-shore-r1141279, accessed 25 April 2024.