Joseph Mallord William Turner The Grand Canal, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Grand Canal, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande 1840
D32122
Turner Bequest CCCXV 6
Turner Bequest CCCXV 6
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 221 x 325 mm
Inscribed by Turner in watercolour BA[?LB]I’ bottom left
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXV – 6’ bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in watercolour BA[?LB]I’ bottom left
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXV – 6’ 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 (62, as ‘Venice: The Grand Canal, looking back to the Salute’).
1934
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series B], Public Gallery and Museum, Hove, December 1934–March 1935, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, December 1948–January 1949, Celebration of the Centenary of Turner’s Death [Loan Series B], National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, February–March 1951 (no catalogue, but frame no.18).
1966
Adelaide Festival of Arts: Special Exhibitions at the National Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, [?March]–April 1966 (13, as ‘Grand Canal looking back at the Salute, Venice’, c.1839).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (549, as ‘Venice: looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and the Salute’, 1840).
1977
Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, International Exhibitions Foundation tour, Cleveland Museum of Art, September–November 1977, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 1977–February 1978, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March–April 1978 (58, as ‘Venice: Looking Down the Grand Canal Towards the Casa Corner and Salute’, 1840, reproduced).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (75, as ‘Venecia: el Gran Canal, hacia la iglesia de la Salute’, 1840, reproduced).
1983
Turner Abroad: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, June–December 1983 (no catalogue).
1985
Turner Abroad: France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, National Gallery of Art, Melbourne, May–June 1985, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, July–August 1985, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, September–October 1985 (no catalogue).
1990
From Venice to the Alps: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–June 1990 (no catalogue).
1995
Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, February–May 1995 (62, as ‘The Grand Canal, Looking back to the Salute (Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande and S. Maria della Salute)’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2001
William Turner: Licht und Farbe, Museum Folkwang, Essen, September 2001–January 2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, February–May 2002 (110, as ‘Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and S. Maria della Salute’, 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 (92, as ‘Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Ca’Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2008
Venice: From Canaletto and Turner to Monet, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, September 2008–February 2009 (no number, as ‘Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2016
Turner’s Urban Landscapes, Tate Britain, London, July 2016–May 2018 (no catalogue, as ‘Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840).
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 46, as ‘Grand Canal looking back to the Salute’.
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, 373, p.611 no. 62, as ‘Venice: The Grand Canal, looking back to the Salute’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1016, CCCXV 6, as ‘The Grand Canal, looking back to the Salute. 62 N.G.’.
1930
A.J. Finberg, In Venice with Turner, London 1930, pp.125, [152], 171, as ‘The Grand Canal, looking back to the Salute’, 1840, pl.XXII.
1839
Charles P. Mountford, Elizabeth Young, Robyn Hill and others, Adelaide Festival of Arts: Special Exhibitions at the National Gallery of South Australia, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 1966, p.[20] no.13, as ‘Grand Canal looking back at the Salute, Venice’, c.1839.
1968
Luke Herrmann, Ruskin and Turner: A Study of Ruskin as a Collector of Turner, Based on his Gifts to the University of Oxford; Incorporating a Catalogue Raisonné of the Turner Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, London 1968, p.84 under no.56.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.156 no.549, as ‘Venice: looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and the Salute’, 1840.
1977
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art 1977, p.77 no.58, as ‘Venice: Looking Down the Grand Canal Towards the Casa Corner and Salute’, 1840, reproduced.
1982
Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, p.59 no.80, as ‘Venice: looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and the Salute’, 1840, pl.80 (colour) and on front dust-jacket cover (cropped).
1983
Lindsay Stainton in Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, reproduced p.88, pp.88, 90 no.75, as ‘Venecia: el Gran Canal, hacia la iglesia de la Salute’, 1840.
1840
Lindsay Stainton, Turner’s Venice, London 1985, p.55 no.47, as ‘Looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and S. Maria della Salute’, ?1840, pl.47 (colour).
1995
Ian Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.107 no.62, as ‘The Grand Canal, Looking back to the Salute (Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande and S. Maria della Salute)’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
1995
Andrew Wilton, Venise: Aquarelles de Turner, Paris 1995, reproduced in colour p.71, as ‘En descendant le Grand Canal en direction de la Casa Corner et de Santa Maria della Salute’.
2001
Andrew Wilton in Wilton, Inge Bodesohn-Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, reproduced in colour p.180, pp.327–8 no.110, as ‘Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal towards the Casa Corner and S. Maria della Salute’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
2003
Ian Warrell in Warrell, David Laven, Jan Morris and Cecilia Powell, Turner and Venice, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2003, pp.104, 164, 168, 258, 271 no.92, as ‘Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Ca’Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840, fig.174 (colour).
2005
Ian Warrell, Cecilia Powell and David Laven, Turner i Venècia, exhibition catalogue, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 2005, p.131 no.60, as ‘Vista del Gran Canal vers el palau Corner della Ca’Grande i Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
2008
Martin Schwander, Bożena Anna Kowalczyk, Ian Warrell and others, Venice: From Canaletto and Turner to Monet, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen 2008, reproduced in colour p.79, p.220, as ‘Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840.
2004
Olivier Meslay, Turner: L’Incendie de la peinture, Découvertes Gallimard Arts, [Paris] 2004, reproduced in colour pp.[4–5], p.151 as ‘Venise, en descendant le Grand Canal en direction du Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Grande et de Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840.
2005
Olivier Meslay, J.M.W. Turner: The Man Who Set Painting on Fire, trans. Ruth Sharman, London 2005, reproduced in colour pp.[4–5], p.151, as ‘Venice: Looking down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande and Santa Maria della Salute’, 1840.
The view is from the south side of the Grand Canal, looking east towards the Bacino. As Ian Warrell has noted, Turner’s slightly unclear inscription in watercolour at the bottom left (probably ‘BALBI’,1 but tentatively transcribed as ‘BAIDI’ in earlier publications2), appears to relate to the bottom right corner, where the rusticated structure is the ground-floor wing curving forward at the side of the entrance to the Palazzo Balbi Valier, detached but immediately west of the Palazzo Loredan-Cini, with its twin balconies high above the entrance to the Rio di San Vio. Beyond is the sunlit west side of the Palazzo Barbarigo3 overlooks the Campo San Vio, with the adjoining Palazzi Da Mula Morosini and Centani Morosini further on.
Receding towards the centre are the lower Ca’ Biondetti, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni,4 and Casa Artom, with the west side of the higher Palazzo Dario catching the light at the near end of a compressed run of palaces which today terminate with the prominent Gothic-revival Palazzo Genovese. The porch of the Dogana is lightly indicated at the centre, overlooking the entrance to the canal and the distant Bacino. Above this sequence rise the Baroque domes and campanili of the church of Santa Maria della Salute, catching the early afternoon light from the south. The largest building on the left is the Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande5 (now with modern windows on the blank west side shown here). Turner was staying at the Hotel Europa (the Palazzo Giustinian), not far beyond on that side; see the parallel subsection of Europa subjects.6
In 1857, reflecting his intense interest in Venetian architecture, John Ruskin characterised this work as:
A study of local colour, showing the strong impression on the painter’s mind of the opposition of the warm colour of the bricks and tawny tiles to the whiteness of the marble, as characteristic of Venice. He is not, however, right in this conception. When, in ancient days, the marble was white, the brick was covered with cement and frescoes; and the lapse of time, which has caused the frescoes to fall away, has changed the marble to a dark or tawny colour.
The colour of the tiles in this sketch is exactly true, when seen under afternoon sunlight. Painters are apt usually to represent them of too pure a red.7
Ruskin’s editors linked this passage with observations he made in 1878:8 ‘I have noticed elsewhere that Turner’s later Venices, when introducing much architecture, were often spoiled by his leaving the buildings too white. This was a morbid result of his feeling that he never could get them bright enough in their relation to the blue or green of the sea, and black of the gondolas.’9
In the context of a long, subjective discussion of supposed stylistic weaknesses in some of the 1840 Venice watercolours, Finberg nevertheless conceded that ‘there are flashes of the familiar vigour and decision. The dome and tower of the Salute, for instance, in cccxv, 6 and cccxvi, 1, are struck in with all the old force and fire’.10 The second work mentioned is Tate D32138, a contemporary watercolour sheet from a different viewpoint west of the Salute but with a similar effect of strong light from the right defining the sculptural forms of the church’s domes, in this case with the brightest parts left as blank paper within the loose pencil outlines. Being ‘defined more by what has been omitted than by a slavish realisation of their actual appearance’, as Warrell has described them,11 the domes are lit ‘so powerfully that they become disembodied’.12 Compare the effect in the 1819 watercolour view of the Dogana from the Como and Venice sketchbook, with the dome of the Zitelle church in the distance defined only by the interplay of shadow and the light eating into it from one side (Tate D15256; Turner Bequest CLXXXI 6).
Finberg considered a watercolour of The Grand Canal, with the Salute (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford),13 from the dismembered contemporary ‘Storm’ sketchbook (see the present book’s Introduction), ‘an unsuccessful attempt to elaborate the [present] brilliant sketch’.14 Luke Herrmann has noted that ‘the view-point differs very considerably’;15 the dome in the Oxford view is touched with white, and the shadows may suggest a later time of day, albeit the yellowing of its similar paper has altered the effect. Warrell has compared the view with that in an 1827 painting by Richard Parkes Bonington which Turner knew;16 he had also been familiar with this particular prospect even before first visiting Venice in 1819, making a watercolour around that time (private collection)17 based on a detailed pencil view by James Hakewill (British School at Rome)18 in connection with the latter’s Picturesque Tour of Italy, although Turner’s interpretation was not engraved.
Warrell has noted that about half the views associated with this sketchbook depict the ‘long canyon of palaces’ winding north and south of the Rialto Bridge along the ‘central part’ of the Grand Canal: D32117–D32119, D32123, D32131, D32132, D32134–D32137 (Turner Bequest CCCXV 1, 2, 3, 7, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21).19 In addition, this page, D32121 and D32124 (CCCXV 5, 8) show scenes near its north-west and south-east ends, while D32178 (CCCXVI 41) is a central subject now also linked to the book. For sites beyond the Grand Canal, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
Wilton 1977, p.77, Wilton 1982, p.59, Stainton 1983, p.88, Stainton 1985, p.55, and Warrell 1995, p.107.
Cook and Wedderburn 1904, p.213; reprinted in Warrell 1995, p.107; also partly quoted in Wilton 1982, p.59; see also Stainton 1985, p.55.
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.464 no.1363, reproduced; Stainton 1985, pl.93 (colour); Warrell 2003, fig.177 (colour).
Verso:
Blank, save for some slight spattering or offsetting of grey colour towards the bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘6’ at centre; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘JR’ bottom left (possibly partly obscured by present mount); stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCXV – 6’ towards bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXV. 6’ bottom right.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Palazzo Corner della Cà Grande 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