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 Distant Mountains across the Lagoon from Venice; Studies of Boats 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Mountains across the Lagoon from Venice; Studies of Boats’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Recto:
Distant Mountains across the Lagoon from Venice; Studies of Boats 1819
D14481
Turner Bequest CLXXV 87
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Partial watermark ‘Al | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘White apron’, ‘c[...]’ and ‘Red’ towards bottom right and ‘Yellow’ and ‘Gold’ towards bottom centre, upside down, on figure and boats
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘87’ top right and ‘300’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 87’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The upper half of the page is taken up with three bands of distant mountain peaks across water; Ian Warrell has noted that they show the prospect across the Lagoon,1 presumably looking northwards from a viewpoint in the neighbourhood of the north-west entrance of the Grand Canal; Finberg noted that these views a few others on adjacent pages ‘complete Turner’s studies of this part of Venice’.2 For other drawings made in the vicinity and an overview of Turner’s coverage of Venice, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
Drawn the other way up at the bottom of the page are annotated studies of several small boats with their boatmen and cargoes, in a sequence continuous with others on folio 87 verso opposite (D14480; Turner Bequest CLXXV 86a). For more boats in this sketchbook, see under folio 37 recto (D14383).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
Undated notes in Tate catalogue files.
2
Finberg 1930, p.53.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Distant Mountains across the Lagoon from Venice; Studies of Boats 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-distant-mountains-across-the-lagoon-from-venice-studies-of-r1186594, accessed 23 September 2024.