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 > Vatican Fragments Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Naples from the East, with the Mole Lighthouse and Castel dell'Ovo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Naples from the East, with the Mole Lighthouse and Castel dell'Ovo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 34 Verso:
Naples from the East, with the Mole Lighthouse and Castel dell’Ovo 1819
D15169
Turner Bequest CLXXX 33 a
Pencil on white wove paper 101 x 161 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although the majority of this sketchbook is taken up with views of Rome, Turner clearly also took the book with him on his journey south to Naples (see the introduction to the sketchbook). The subject of this landscape sketch is Naples seen from the east, possibly from a boat, or from the Ponte della Maddalena, with the port and the Mole lighthouse in the centre, and the distinctive profile of the Castel dell’Ovo in the distance on the left. Similar views can be seen in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15649–D15651 and D15673; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 46a–47a and 58a), the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15913–D15919; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 3a–7), and the Naples, Rome C: Studies sketchbook (Tate D16113; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 25).

Nicola Moorby
December 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Naples from the East, with the Mole Lighthouse and Castel dell’Ovo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-naples-from-the-east-with-the-mole-lighthouse-and-castel-r1139581, accessed 24 April 2024.