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 The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie and Nuove beside the Erberia; the Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), Venice, with the Basilica and Campanile 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie and Nuove beside the Erberia; the Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), Venice, with the Basilica and Campanile’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie and Nuove beside the Erberia; the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), Venice, with the Basilica and Campanile 1819
D14396
Turner Bequest CLXXV 43a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Partial watermark ‘Al | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Green | V B’ towards top left, upside down, ‘R W’ right of centre, and ‘X’ several times centre right, in rows of windows
Inscribed in pencil ‘43a’ top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, Turner’s drawing was made on the Grand Canal, at the bend just east of the Rialto Bridge, looking north-west. The Palazzo dei Camerlenghi is on the left, with the arcades of the Fabbriche Vecchie and Fabbriche Nuove fronting the waterside Campo Erberia (vegetable market) receding on the right. The drawing on folio 75 verso (D14459) is from about the same viewpoint, but with the Erberia on the left and the opposite side of the canal shown to the right. Compare also a view including the bridge to the left in the contemporary Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14512; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 13).
The other way up towards the gutter at the top left is the Procuratie Vecchie range along the north side of the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), running on from the full-page view on folio 44 recto opposite (D14397). The note ‘Green | V B’ applied to this continuation.
For other drawings made in the vicinity and an overview of Turner’s coverage of Venice, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie and Nuove beside the Erberia; the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), Venice, with the Basilica and Campanile 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-the-grand-canal-venice-with-the-palazzo-dei-camerlenghi-and-r1186509, accessed 26 April 2024.