Joseph Mallord William Turner

Finberg later annotated his misleading 1909 Inventory entry (‘The Molo, looking towards S. Giorgio’): ‘Ponte Paglia, D’s Pal., with Dogana in distance: shipping in foreg^d’.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy, crossing out ‘S. Giorgio’ and adding: ‘the Salute | various sketches’.2

There are two main views here, drawn with the page turned horizontally. In the more detailed, across the centre, the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) is seen on the right above the Ponte della Paglia from the broad quay marking the beginning of the Riva degli Schiavoni, with the Libreria Sansoviniana and Zecca beyond the columns at the Molo entrance to the Piazzetta at the centre. In the distance are the domes of Santa Maria della Salute above the porch of the Dogana at the entrance to the Grand Canal to the west-south-west. Compare the more detailed rendering in the 1819 Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate D14414; Turner Bequest CLXXV 52a).

Above is a slighter version of the same scene, while below, carried across the gutter from folio 14 recto opposite (D31817), is the upper part of a study of moored boats.