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

As Cecilia Powell first identified, this sketch depicts part of a panoramic view taken from the Villa Guadagni, situated near the Church of San Domenico on the south-western outskirts of Fiesole.1 The inscription in the bottom left-hand corner appears to represent Turner’s attempt at a phonetic spelling of the villa’s name, whilst the building with the pointed bell-tower near the central foreground is San Domenico di Fiesole itself. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 76 verso (D16613), but visible on this side is part of the distant city of Florence to the south. Turner has labelled the hill of the Boboli Gardens on the far right-hand side.

Powell has suggested that the artist’s use of blurred hatching indicates that he was drawing at sunrise or sunset when parts of the lush Tuscan landscape would have been cast into deep shadow.2 Further sketches from Fiesole can be found on folios 30 verso, 31, 74–76, 77 verso–79 verso, 84 (D16542, D16543, D16608–D16612, D16615–D16619, D16627).