Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the page turned horizontally, the main view is north-east from the south end Trieste’s harbour, across the gulf to the rugged coastline. The building on the left is in the old lazaretto area, since much altered; allowing for the slightness of the sketch, it may represent the south-east façade of the present Museo del Mare. The lighthouse, operational from 1833, still stands on its castellated base at the southern end of the harbour, but was superseded in the 1920s by the monumental Faro della Vittoria, north of the city.1 This is one of a sequence of views in and around the Adriatic port, made working inwards from the back of this sketchbook; see under folio 57 recto (D30109).2

Above is a rapid and somewhat shaky drawing of the ‘carriage sketch’ type, annotated with a few words. As Cecilia Powell has implied, the last may be ‘Graz’,3 referring to Turner’s next major stopping point (see under folio 41 verso; D30079) after passing through present-day Slovenia on his route inland north-east towards Vienna.

Technical notes:

There is staining at the top centre from the leather pencil loop secured under the rear paste-down (D30129; Turner Bequest CCXCIX 67).