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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Italy c.1828-43 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner An ?Italian River, with Buildings or Ruins on the Far Bank c.1828-43

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An ?Italian River, with Buildings or Ruins on the Far Bank’ c.1828-43
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An ?Italian River, with Buildings or Ruins on the Far Bank c.1828–43
D33984
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 268
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 149 x 225 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘268’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 268’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The swiftly noted subject is unidentified, but the tall cypress trees at the left suggest it may be Italian; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. The rough forms in the foreground appear to be small boats, with the schematically rendered uprights beyond presumably indicating a bridge. Finberg described the buildings on the skyline as ‘ruins’,1 but their roughness may simply be symptomatic of Turner’s haste.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1079.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘241 | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘268’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
January 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An ?Italian River, with Buildings or Ruins on the Far Bank c.1828–43 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-an-italian-river-with-buildings-or-ruins-on-the-far-bank-r1183027, accessed 18 April 2024.