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, from the West 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Moncalieri, from the West’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Verso:
Moncalieri, from the West 1819
D14187
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 21 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Turin’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Despite Turner’s inscription at the bottom of the page this sketch does not appear to depict a view of ‘Turin’, but rather of Moncalieri, a town on the banks of the River Po approximately five miles south of the city. The vista looks east across the river towards the distinctive silhouette of the Castello Reale, a residence of the ruling House of Savoy which stands on the high ground to the north of the town. For further sketches of Moncalieri see folio 17 (D14176; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 16).
Eric Shanes has suggested that there may be a connection to the building within this sketch, and the architectural element in a later colour beginning (see Tate D25140; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 18).1
The upper right-hand side of the page also contains a small part of the line of mountains which has spilled over from the composition on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 23 (D14188; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 22).

Nicola Moorby
January 2013

1
Shanes 1997, p.94.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Moncalieri, from the West 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, 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-from-the-west-r1142710, accessed 21 September 2024.