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 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Tower, a Dome and other Buildings, Possibly at Brescia or Milan 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Tower, a Dome and other Buildings, Possibly at Brescia or Milan’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
A Tower, a Dome and other Buildings, Possibly at Brescia or Milan 1819
D14350
Turner Bequest CLXXV 18
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Partial watermark ‘lee | 13’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘18’ top right and ‘300’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has proposed Brescia (see under folio 19 recto; D14350) as the subject,1 although the slightness and rapidity of the drawing in this ‘carriage sketch’ suggest that it was made while approaching or passing a town, and the tower(s) and dome(s) are difficult to identify with any certainty.
Federico Crimi has tentatively suggested an alternative connection to a watercolour view of the roofs and towers of Milan in the larger Como and Venice sketchbook (Tate D15253; Turner Bequest CLXXXI 3),2 although any resemblance may be fortuitous; for other views of the city, see under folio 2 recto (D14328).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
Undated notes by Ian Warrell in Tate catalogue files.
2
See Crimi 2007, p.43 note 62.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Tower, a Dome and other Buildings, Possibly at Brescia or Milan 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-tower-a-dome-and-other-buildings-possibly-at-brescia-or-r1186463, accessed 25 April 2024.