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 The River Po, Turin, with Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and the Monte dei Cappuccini 1819

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Po, Turin, with Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and the Monte dei Cappuccini’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
The River Po, Turin, with Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and the Monte dei Cappuccini 1819
D14217
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘37’ top right and ‘284’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 37’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is a view of Turin from the western (left) bank of the River Po.1 Turner’s study looks up-river (south) towards the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, a bridge which had only recently been built at the start of the nineteenth century. Visible on the opposite side of the river is the hill known as the Monte dei Cappuccini, topped by the Church of Santa Maria al Monte.2 Finding that he had run out of room Turner extended his drawing on the right-hand side by folding back the sheet and continuing the composition on the underlying sheet, see folio 39 (Tate D14219; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 38).
Turner made a number of sketches of Turin from the river. Similar views can be found on folios 38 verso–40 (D14218–D14221; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 37a–39), while for a vista looking in the opposite direction see folios 26 verso–27 (D14195–6; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 25a–26).

Nicola Moorby
December 2012

1
First identified by Finberg 1930, p.163.
2
The view today would also include the church of Gran Madre di Dio which was built between 1818–31 at the eastern end of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The River Po, Turin, with Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and the Monte dei Cappuccini 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-the-river-po-turin-with-ponte-vittorio-emanuele-i-and-the-r1142738, accessed 27 April 2024.