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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Part of a View of Naples and Vesuvius from Mergellina 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Verso:
Part of a View of Naples and Vesuvius from Mergellina 1819
D16032
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 62 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Gai...]’ bottom left, and ‘Mergellina’, ‘Church’ and ‘[?wro...]’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Turner’s inscription indicates, his viewpoint for this view of Naples is Mergellina, a small fishing village and port about a mile west of the main city between the Chiaia waterfront and Posillipo. The vista looks east across the bay towards the small headland of Castel dell’Ovo with Vesuvius in the distance. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread with Castel Sant’Elmo, see folio 65 (D16033; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 63). Related sketches can be found on folios 66 verso–67 (D16036–D16037; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 64a–65).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of a View of Naples and Vesuvius from Mergellina 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2010, 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-part-of-a-view-of-naples-and-vesuvius-from-mergellina-r1137956, accessed 25 April 2024.