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 Church of San Simeone Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, Venice, with San Geremia in the Distance; a Canal with a Distant Campanile 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Church of San Simeone Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, Venice, with San Geremia in the Distance; a Canal with a Distant Campanile’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Verso:
The Church of San Simeone Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, Venice, with San Geremia in the Distance; a Canal with a Distant Campanile 1840
D31855
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 33a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘St Sim[...] Piccolo’ right of centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two views here, made with the page turned horizontally. The lower is centred on the prominent dome of San Simeone Piccolo above its waterfront portico on the right, as annotated by Turner, looking north-east to the campanile and dome of San Geremia in the distance beyond where the high single span of the Ponte degli Scalzi now bridges the canal. The rapidly rendered prospect is somewhat condensed, with little or no indication of the Scalzi church opposite; compare the more detailed study in the 1819 Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate D14478; Turner Bequest CLXXV 85).
San Simeone and the Scalzi are both shown from the other direction in the two sketches on folio 34 recto opposite (D31856), and there is a study of San Geremia on folio 34 verso (D31857).
The upper view is likely a nearby scene, but less readily identifiable with its largely undifferentiated buildings, apparently along a canal, and a tall campanile above a gable in the distance.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Church of San Simeone Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, Venice, with San Geremia in the Distance; a Canal with a Distant Campanile 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-church-of-san-simeone-piccolo-on-the-grand-canal-venice-r1196750, accessed 27 April 2024.