Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping in the Bacino, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute at the Entrance to the Grand Canal in the Distance 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Shipping in the Bacino, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute at the Entrance to the Grand Canal in the Distance 1840
D32120
Turner Bequest CCCXV 4
Turner Bequest CCCXV 4
Watercolour on white wove paper, 221 x 321 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1834’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXV – 4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXV – 4’ bottom right
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1834’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXV – 4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXV – 4’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (60, as ‘Venice: Entrance to Grand Canal’).
1937
Aquarelles de Turner, oeuvres de Blake/Englischen Graphiken und Aquarellen: W. Blake und J.M.W. Turner, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, January–February 1937, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, March–April 1937 (101, as ‘Venedig, Einfahrt in den Canal grande’, c.1839).
1937
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, December 1937–September 1939; continuing after the Second World War–December 1952(no catalogue, but frame no.II: 19).
1965
[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, ? – [?]March 1965 (no catalogue).
1972
J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972 (95, as ‘Venedig: Eingang des Canale Grande’, c.1840, reproduced).
1973
Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, June–July 1973 (42, as ‘Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal’, c.1839, reproduced).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (230, as ‘Venice: The Bacino di S. Marco, looking towards the Grand Canal’, 1840).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (74, as ‘Venecia: entrada al Gran Canal’, 1840, reproduced).
1993
The Art of Seeing: John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, Phoenix Art Museum, March–May 1993, Indianapolis Museum of Art, June–August 1993 (no number, as ‘Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal’, reproduced).
1995
Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, February–May 1995 (60, as ‘The Head of the Grand Canal. Afternoon. Bad weather coming on (Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal)’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2003
Turner and Venice, Tate Britain, London, October 2003–January 2004, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, February–May 2004, Museo Correr, Venice, September 2004–January 2005, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, March–June 2005 (90, as ‘Shipping in the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2008
Turner e l’Italia/Turner and Italy, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, November 2008–February 2009, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, March–June 2009, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, July–October 2009 (no number, as ‘Venice: Shipping in the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2016
Turner et la Couleur / J.M.W. Turner: Adventures in Colour, Hotel de Caumont Centre d’art, Aix-en-Provence, May–September 2016, Turner Contemporary, Margate, October 2016–January 2017 (102, as ‘Venise: bateaux dans le Bacino avec l’entrée du Grand Canal’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
References
1903
Charles Holme (ed.), Robert de la Sizeranne, Walter Shaw Sparrow and others, The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, Paris and New York 1903, pl.W 43, as ‘Entrance to Grand Canal’.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.213 no.60, as ‘The Head of the Grand Canal’, 373 no.60, as ‘San Giorgio’, 611 no.60, as ‘Venice: Entrance to Grand Canal’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1016, CCCXV 4, as ‘Entrance Grand Canal. Exhibited drawings, No.60, N.G.’.
1930
A.J. Finberg, In Venice with Turner, London 1930, p.171, as ‘Entrance to the Grand Canal, with the Salute on the left’, 1840.
1839
Laurence Binyon, Ausstellung von englischen Graphiken und Aquarellen: W. Blake und J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna 1937, p.28 no.101, as ‘Venedig, Einfahrt in den Canal grande’, c.1839.
1947
H.J. Paris, ‘English Water-Colour Painters’ in W.J. Turner ed., Aspects of British Art, London 1947, reproduced in colour p.[90], as ‘Venice, Entrance to the Grand Canal’, 1833.
1969
John Gage, Colour in Turner: Poetry and Truth, London 1969, p.252 note 215.
1840
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972, p.124 no.95, as ‘Venedig: Eingang des Canale Grande’, c.1840, Abb.15.
1839
Norman Reid, Andrew Wilton and Luke Herrmann, Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1973, p.112 no.42, as ‘Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal’, c.1839, reproduced p.[113].
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.138 no. 230, as ‘Venice: The Bacino di S. Marco, looking towards the Grand Canal’, 1840, p.139 under nos.232 and 233, 142 under no.239.
1983
Lindsay Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, pp.87–8 no.74, as ‘Venecia: entrada al Gran Canal’, 1840, reproduced.
1993
Susan Phelps Gordon, Anthony Lacy Gully, Robert Hewison and others, John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, exhibition catalogue, Phoenix Art Museum 1993, fig.29, as ‘Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal’.
1995
Ian Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.100 under no.55, 105 no.60, as ‘The Head of the Grand Canal. Afternoon. Bad weather coming on (Venice: Entrance to the Grand Canal)’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
1997
Martin F. Krause, Turner in Indianapolis: The Pantzer Collection of Drawings and Watercolors by J.M.W. Turner and his Contemporaries at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis 1997, p.260 under nos.83–86, p.263 under no.86.
2003
Ian Warrell in Warrell, David Laven, Jan Morris and Cecilia Powell, Turner and Venice, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2003, pp.95, 226, 258, 271 no.90, as ‘Shipping in the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal’, 1840, fig.243 (colour).
2005
Ian Warrell, Cecilia Powell and David Laven, Turner i Venècia, exhibition catalogue, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 2005, p.170 no.101, as ‘Vaixells al Bacino, amb l’entrada del Gran Canal’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
1840
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner e l’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 2008, pl.81 (colour), as ‘Imbarcazioni sul Bacino, con l’ingresso del Canal Grande’, 1840.
2009
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner & Italy, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2009, p.144, as ‘Venice: Shipping in the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal’, 1840, pl.113 (colour).
2016
Ian Warrell and others, Turner et la Couleur, exhibition catalogue, Hotel de Caumont Centre d’art, Aix-en-Provence 2016, p.125 no. 102, as ‘Venise: bateaux dans le Bacino avec l’entrée du Grand Canal’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
Looking west over the Bacino off the Riva degli Schiavoni, perhaps about level with the church of the Pietà, the domes of Santa Maria della Salute appear at the far left overlooking the entrance to the Grand Canal.1 The reddish vertical accent towards the right may indicate the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s).2 If the pale form immediately to the right of the Salute is intended as the porch of the Dogana, this would make the viewpoint quite far south from the Riva, off the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, although topographical accuracy is less important here than the atmospheric effect of the pink and blue clouds against the pale sky; in 1857 John Ruskin limited his commentary to: ‘Head of the Grand Canal. Afternoon. Bad weather coming on.’3 In his 1881 notes the title became ‘San Giorgio’,4 perhaps reflecting his sense of the viewpoint.
Ian Warrell has noted that Ruskin associated the subject with other 1840 subjects as ‘a series of views along the rambling Riva degli Schiavoni, which suggests that Turner explored its length by foot, as well as from the water’ (see also Tate D32157–D32160; Turner Bequest CCCXVI 20–23).5 Andrew Wilton has likened the ‘mood and treatment’ here to those of other pages from this sketchbook showing the broad reaches of the Canale della Giudecca (D32127–D32129; CCCXV 11–13).6
Warrell has compared the palette with that of the watercolour The Sun of Venice: Bragozzi Moored off the Riva degli Schiavoni (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh),7 a technically similar page associated with the notional contemporary ‘Storm’ sketchbook (see the Introduction to the present sketchbook). This may indicate that ‘in some instances Turner worked on an image in both books simultaneously, allowing his colours to dry as he went back and forth between the two’;8 Warrell notes that the overall effect of the Bequest work is ‘generalised and indistinct’, qualities it shares, along with the Salute in the same position and colours on the left, with the backdrop of the Edinburgh sheet (where the church seems darker by contrast against a clear sky), otherwise characterised by the greater detail of its shipping.9
In discussing the light and shade Turner evoked through colour, John Gage observed his use of habitual ‘contrast through the opposition, not of complimentaries, but of warm and cool colours’;10 despite the artist’s possible reference to ‘complementary shadows’, ‘the only striking examples’ Gage had come across were in the present watercolour, with ‘pink light on the buildings on the left, with a viridian watershadow’ and the painting of the Depositing of John Bellini’s Three Pictures in la Chiesa Redentore, Venice, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841 (private collection;11 engraved in 1858: Tate impression T05192).12
There is a copy of this work on the same scale, datable to after 1880 (Indianapolis Museum of Art), by Ruskin’s protégé William Ward (1829–1908), who made many such near-facsimiles of Turner Bequest watercolours.13
Verso:
There is a dash of yellow colour at the top right, grey splashes at the bottom left, and rubbed grey at the centre left, likely associated with watercolour work on Tate D32121 (Turner Bequest CCCXV 5) or whichever page of the totally dismembered sketchbook was originally bound opposite.
Otherwise blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘JR’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘3’ centre; inscribed in pencil ‘N.G. 60’ bottom centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCXV – 4’ bottom left.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Shipping in the Bacino, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute at the Entrance to the Grand Canal in the Distance 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www