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 > Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Moncalieri and Distant Alps, from the Castello Reale 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Moncalieri and Distant Alps, from the Castello Reale’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Moncalieri and Distant Alps, from the Castello Reale 1819
D14184
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘284’ top right and ‘20’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch is one of a series of views depicting the town of Moncalieri, approximately five miles south of Turin.1 The page contains part of a panoramic view looking south and west from the Castello Reale, a residence of the ruling House of Savoy which stands on the high ground to the north of the town.2 Turner’s viewpoint is a high terrace near the south-west tower of the castle and visible on this side of the vista is the historic centre of the town with the Church of Santa Maria della Scala, identifiable from its prominent fifteenth-century campanile. The background is dominated by the distant line of the Alps. The composition is continued on folio 22 (D14186; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 21). Turner peeled back this first sheet in order to continue the drawing on the underlying page.
For a list of further views of Moncalieri see folio 17 (D14176; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 16).

Nicola Moorby
December 2012

1
Finberg 1930, p.16, incorrectly identified the sketch as a view of the Alps seen from the Piazzale of the Monte dei Cappuccini.
2
The subject was first tentatively identified by Federico Crimi, unpublished notes.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Moncalieri and Distant Alps, from the Castello Reale 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-moncalieri-and-distant-alps-from-the-castello-reale-r1142707, accessed 24 April 2024.