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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats on the Grand Canal, Venice, Possibly Looking towards the Rialto with the Palazzi Papadopoli and Grimani and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi Beyond 1819

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats on the Grand Canal, Venice, Possibly Looking towards the Rialto with the Palazzi Papadopoli and Grimani and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi Beyond’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Verso:
Boats on the Grand Canal, Venice, Possibly Looking towards the Rialto with the Palazzi Papadopoli and Grimani and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi Beyond 1819
D14477
Turner Bequest CLXXV 84a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Partial watermark ‘lee | 13’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Black and Orang’ (sic) right of centre, above figures
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study focuses on the boats and boatmen in the foreground, but the lightly indicated buildings beyond, with obelisk finials on the left, an array of chimneys in the distance, and a grand classical façade on the right, might be respectively the Palazzo Papadopoli, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi and the Palazzo Bembo, making this a view north-east along the Grand Canal towards the Rialto. Compare the much more detailed view on folios 73 recto and 74 recto (D14455–D14456). Inverted at the top right is the south-eastern dome of the church of San Simeone Piccolo, continued from the view on folio 85 recto opposite (D14478).
For more studies of boats in this sketchbook, see under folio 37 recto (D14383), and for other drawings made on the Grand Canal and an overview of Turner’s coverage of Venice, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Boats on the Grand Canal, Venice, Possibly Looking towards the Rialto with the Palazzi Papadopoli and Grimani and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi Beyond 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boats-on-the-grand-canal-venice-possibly-looking-towards-the-r1186589, accessed 19 April 2024.