Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘Shipping off the Molo’), transcribing Turner’s inscription as given here identifying the separate study of the bridge at the top.1 The Ponte della Veneta Marina is much further east than Finberg’s title might suggest, spanning the entrance to the Rio della Tana south of the Arsenale. It is seen again in a view eastwards on folio 23 recto (D31835).

The main view, made with the page turned horizontally, is from the Canale di San Marco about level with the bridge, taking in the church of San Giorgio Maggiore on its island to the south-west, the domes of Santa Maria della Salute in the distance across the Bacino to the left of the silhouetted moored ship(s), and the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) to the right of centre beyond the sweep of the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Compare the vista in the 1840 watercolours Tate D32159 and D32167 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 22, 30); the latter has been linked with the same bridge, although this is perhaps debatable given its lack of precise foreground detail. Tate D32235 (Turner Bequest CCCXVIII 16), a loose gouache and watercolour study on grey paper, appears to be inscribed ‘Marina’, and may show a similar aspect. A note, perhaps of an appointment, in the contemporary Rotterdam to Venice sketchbook (Tate D32431; Turner Bequest CCCXX 86) seems to refer to the bridge or its neighbourhood.