Joseph Mallord William Turner

An Idealised Italianate Landscape with Trees beside Water and a Building in the Distance

c.1828–9

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Colour Studies of Idealised Italianate Landscapes
Medium
Dimensions
None
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D25275
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 153

Catalogue entry

The pale form at the centre suggests a large building in the distance beyond the foliage and still water. Compare also several other muted ‘colour beginnings’ with dark, isolated trees (Tate D25167, D25168, D25175, D25208; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 45, 46, 53, 86). D25167, D25168 and D25208 are on 1828 paper, while the composition of D25168 has been linked to the oil painting The Loretto Necklace, painted soon after Turner’s return from his second Italian tour of 1828–9 (Tate N00509).1 He had also been working on watercolours of Italian subjects shortly before the trip.2
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.185 no.331, pl.334.
2
See Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.384 nos.726, 730, 731; also Shanes 1997, p.29.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 150 P | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII 153’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 153’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
August 2016

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