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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice and Botzen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Campanile and Domes of San Marco (St Mark's) and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace), Venice, from the Bacino; a Waterfront with Sailing Boats 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Campanile and Domes of San Marco (St Mark's) and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace), Venice, from the Bacino; a Waterfront with Sailing Boats’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Verso:
The Campanile and Domes of San Marco (St Mark’s) and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), Venice, from the Bacino; a Waterfront with Sailing Boats 1840
D31847
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 29a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entries for folios 29 recto and verso and 30 recto (D31846–D31848: ‘Campanile, &c.’): ‘scaffolding shown | all from a gondola on Basino [sic]’.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell similarly marked another copy, albeit describing the viewpoints as ‘from a gondola on the Canale di S. Marco’,2 which appears incorrect.
With the page turned horizontally, the view is north across the Bacino from the entrance to the Canale della Giudecca in the vicinity of the Zitelle church, with the Molo facades of the Zecca (Mint) and Libreria Sansoviniana aligned just to the right of the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s). Beyond the Piazzetta to their right in turn are the domes of the Basilica, with the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) shown on a slight diagonal in front of them. The scaffolding on the spire is a frequent and important indication of the 1840 dating of such views (see the tour Introduction).3 There is a slighter view from about the same point on folio 30 recto opposite (D31848).
At the top right is a related thumbnail sketch, separated by pencil lines, including two lateen sails and distant waterfront buildings.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1010.
2
Undated MS note by Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1010.
3
See also George 1971, p.86.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Campanile and Domes of San Marco (St Mark’s) and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), Venice, from the Bacino; a Waterfront with Sailing Boats 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-campanile-and-domes-of-san-marco-st-marks-and-the-r1196742, accessed 26 April 2024.