Joseph Mallord William Turner

This detailed view of a fortified town is unidentified, but may be Italian; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry for this sheet gives the recto title as ‘Ruined fortifications on rock’ with the ‘Reverse’ as ‘View of city, with towers, &c.’.1 Although the present side was subsequently stamped with the Turner Bequest number usually reserved for the recto, it appears that he intended the secondary title to describe the view here; the other side is Tate D40332 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 243v), where less coherent ‘Ruined fortifications’ are shown.

Subsequent to the publication of his 1909 Inventory Finberg noted the undated suggestion of the Turner scholar C.F. Bell (1871–1966) that the subject might be Avignon or neighbouring Villeneuve,2 in the South of France, but the subject currently remains unconfirmed.