Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Italian Figures and their Costumes ?at Bologna, a Horse-Drawn Cart, and Boats on the River Po 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 90 Verso:
Studies of Italian Figures and their Costumes ?at Bologna, a Horse-Drawn Cart, and Boats on the River Po 1819
D14652
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 86a
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 86a
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘Allnutt | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B’, ‘Blue’, ‘B’ and ‘Red’ towards top, on and around figures, ‘B’, ‘[?W]’, ‘D’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘Red’, ‘[?Red]’, ‘RWBG’, ‘[?E] Horses’, ‘[?Gre ... | ...]’, ‘Boats on the Po’ across centre, on and around figures, horses and boats, and ‘Bol’ twice, towards centre right and bottom right, descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘2’ top left, upside down
Partial watermark ‘Allnutt | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B’, ‘Blue’, ‘B’ and ‘Red’ towards top, on and around figures, ‘B’, ‘[?W]’, ‘D’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘Red’, ‘[?Red]’, ‘RWBG’, ‘[?E] Horses’, ‘[?Gre ... | ...]’, ‘Boats on the Po’ across centre, on and around figures, horses and boats, and ‘Bol’ twice, towards centre right and bottom right, descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘2’ top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.519, CLXXVI 86a, as ‘Numerous figures, boats, &c.’.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.82, with partial transcription, 462 note 63.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.24, with partial transcription, 202 note 39.
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, at the centre and right are overlapping studies of figures in a horse-drawn cart and various small boats noted as being ‘on the Po’. Compare folio 10 verso (D14507), which appears to record a scene on the river, presumably somewhere along the northern approach to Ferrara (see inside the front cover; D40895); for other studies of boats, see under folio 7 verso (D14501).
Along the lop and at the centre left are numerous candid studies of people sitting or going about their business, taking particular note of their costumes, with scattered colour notes. They include figures carrying bundles and using a yoke, a soldier, and perhaps priests and merchants in long cloaks. What appears to be another such study at the bottom right, made with the page turned vertically, is labelled ‘Bol’, probably indicating Bologna, which Turner recorded extensively (see under folio 24 recto; D14532).
Matthew Imms
March 2017
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Italian Figures and their Costumes ?at Bologna, a Horse-Drawn Cart, and Boats on the River Po 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www