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 > Remarks (Italy) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Figures, including Two Men on Horseback Approaching the Porta San Paolo, Rome 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Figures, including Two Men on Horseback Approaching the Porta San Paolo, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
Studies of Figures, including Two Men on Horseback Approaching the Porta San Paolo, Rome 1819
D16763
Turner Bequest CXCIII 1 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 115 x 94 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Red’ and ‘[?Red]’ within top sketch, and ‘B’, ‘R | B | R’, ‘Green | R’ within bottom sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner frequently made swift records of people observed during his Italian travels. This page contains seven studies of figures, seen during his sojourn in Rome. Despite being extremely rough and schematic they exhibit a lively sense of movement, including a man bending to pick up a bucket and a woman carrying a large bundle on her head. The artist has annotated the sketches with notes on colour. At the centre of the page is a drawing of two men on horseback approaching some buildings. The triangular structure and the adjacent circular towers can be clearly identified as the Pyramid of Cestius and the Porta San Paolo in Rome. For a detailed sketch of the same location see the Rome and Florence sketchbook (Tate D16500; Turner Bequest CXCI 9).

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies of Figures, including Two Men on Horseback Approaching the Porta San Paolo, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-studies-of-figures-including-two-men-on-horseback-r1138538, accessed 24 April 2024.