J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Genoa and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Coast 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Coast’ 1828
Folio 42 Recto:
Distant View of Camogli and the Riviera di Levante, Liguria 1828
D21494
Turner Bequest CCXXXIII 42
Pencil on white lined wove paper, 144 x 96 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘42’ (smudged) top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIII – 42’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified this panoramic study as Camogli, a Ligurian fishing village to the west of the Portofino promontory.1 The Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta appears at the centre of the page, while the belltower located further inland on the slopes to the left is possibly the Santuario di Nostra Signora del Boschetto. The sweeping topography of the Riviera di Levante, the area of Ligurian coastline linking Genoa and La Spezia, is also outlined. As Courtot noted, the artist’s viewpoint appears to be from the route to Rapallo near Ruta, looking north-west towards distant Genoa.2 This is a detailed version of the view on folio 41 verso opposite (D21493), with the landscape and foliage more clearly defined.
1
Roland Courtot, ‘10. Vers Rome: “carnet de Gènes et Florence” (TB CCXXXIII)’, Carnets de voyage de Turner, accessed 2 May 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/2291.
2
Ibid.
Technical notes:
There is a small hole worn through the paper at the centre.
Verso:
Blank

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Distant View of Camogli and the Riviera di Levante, Liguria 1828’, catalogue entry, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/distant-view-of-camogli-and-the-riviera-di-levante-liguria-r1210034, accessed 13 June 2025.