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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Italy c.1828-43 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner An ?Italian Town in a Valley, with Distant Mountains, and Roadside Shrines in the Foreground c.1828-43

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An ?Italian Town in a Valley, with Distant Mountains, and Roadside Shrines in the Foreground’ c.1828-43
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An ?Italian Town in a Valley, with Distant Mountains, and Roadside Shrines in the Foreground c.1828–43
D33791
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 110
Pencil and white chalk on grey wove paper, 142 x 193 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?...olo]’ towards bottom left and ‘[?...rig...]’ towards bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘110’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 110’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This mountainous subject, with two freestanding roadside shrines annotated in the foreground and a hill town beyond, is currently unidentified but probably Italian; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. Working from his reading of Turner’s inscription, Finberg suggested the scene was probably ‘Arcole, between Verona & Venice’,1 but this is unconfirmed.
1
Undated MS note by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, opposite p.1069.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘233 | O’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
February 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An ?Italian Town in a Valley, with Distant Mountains, and Roadside Shrines in the Foreground c.1828–43 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-an-italian-town-in-a-valley-with-distant-mountains-and-r1182999, accessed 20 April 2024.