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 Town on the Banks of a River c.1828-43

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An ?Italian Town on the Banks of a River’ c.1828-43
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An ?Italian Town on the Banks of a River c.1828–43
D34051
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 331
Pencil on grey wove paper, 152 x 222 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘331’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 331’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This urban riverside subject is unidentified, but may be Italian; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. Finberg noted of this sheet and Tate D34052–D34061 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 332–341): ‘The following, Nos. 331–341, were enclosed in a parcel endorsed by Mr. [John] Ruskin – “AB. 22.P.O. Pencil on grey. Slovenly” –’.1 Subsequent to the publication of his 1909 Inventory, he suggested that except the last, they are ‘all same place. ?Lyons’,2 that is Lyon, France, although their settings appear rather varied and that identification is as yet unconfirmed for any of them.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1084.
2
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy in Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, opposite p.1084.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘405’ top right, upside down; scattered dark ?glue marks; remains of paper from former mount adhering to corners.

Matthew Imms
January 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An ?Italian Town on the Banks of a River 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-town-on-the-banks-of-a-river-r1183038, accessed 23 April 2024.