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 > Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Moncalieri from the West, with the Castello Reale 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Moncalieri from the West, with the Castello Reale’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
Moncalieri from the West, with the Castello Reale 1819
D14176
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘23’ top centre left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘284’ top right and ‘16’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg first identified, the subject of this sketch as a view of Moncalieri, a town approximately five miles south of Turin.1 Turner’s view depicts the town from the west, standing on the opposite bank of the River Po. The most recognisable landmark is the Castello Reale, a residence of the ruling House of Savoy which stands on a hill above the town (left-hand side of the composition) and is characterised by four square angular towers connecting long galleries. A small part of the drawing spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 16 verso (D14175; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 15v).
Turner made a number of sketches of Moncalieri, drawing it from a distance, see folios 14 verso–16 (D14171–D14174), in greater detail from within the town itself, see folios 17 verso–19, 21 verso (D14177–D14182, D14185; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 16a–18, 20a), and as part of a wider panoramic sweep of the surrounding countryside, folios 20 verso–21, 22–22 verso (D14183– D14184, D14186–D14187; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 19 a–20, 21–21a).

Nicola Moorby
December 2012

1
Finberg 1930, p.163.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Moncalieri from the West, with the Castello Reale 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-moncalieri-from-the-west-with-the-castello-reale-r1142699, accessed 25 April 2024.