Joseph Mallord William Turner

Three Sketches of Salerno and the Bay

1819

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 189 × 113 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D15981
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 35 a

Catalogue entry

The sequence of sketches on this page appears to depict views of the rugged coastline around Salerno. At the top is one of the many medieval watch-towers which are dotted along the length of the Amalfi coastline, possibly the Torre Crestarella between Salerno and Vietri sul Mare.1 The bottom study meanwhile represents the port of Salerno from the east with the castle (Castello di Arecchi) overlooking the bay on the hill to the right. Similar views can be seen on folio 38 verso (D15983; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 36a). The rough, uncertain nature of the draughtsmanship suggests that Turner was working from a moving carriage or vessel.

Also on the page is part of the landscape composition of the coast near Salerno which continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 38 (D15982).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

See for example views in a 1793 sketchbook (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester) by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797), reproduced in Anthony Blunt, Catalogue of Seven Sketch-Books by John Robert Cozens, Sothebys, London 1973, vol.III, nos.11, 12, 15, 16, 18.

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