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 > Ancona to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819
D14665
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘villa’ centre of left-hand edge and ‘olives’ within the sketch to left of tree
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVII 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After a sustained period of travel along the east coast from Rimini, Turner’s route towards Rome turned inland at Ancona and began to follow a south-westerly course towards the Apennine Mountains. Many of the urban settlements in this part of Italy were built upon high ground and Turner made a number of sketches of the hilltop towns and cities he glimpsed as he travelled through the landscape of the Marche region of Italy. The order of these drawings within the beginning of this sketchbook does not appear to follow a strict geographical sequence.
Cecilia Powell has identified the subject of this sketch as the hill town of Osimo, as seen from the road south of Ancona with the towers of the Palazzo Comunale and the cathedral. A similar view can be found on folio 6 (D14663).

Nicola Moorby
November 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Osimo from the Road from Ancona, with the Towers of the Palazzo Comunale and Cathedral 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2008, 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-osimo-from-the-road-from-ancona-with-the-towers-of-the-r1138827, accessed 20 April 2024.