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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘View on Grand Canal (?)’): ‘Side canal. Tower of S. Bartolomeo at Rialto’.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy in the same way,2 and made a note to the same effect in a copy of Finberg’s 1930 book In Venice with Turner.3 San Bartolomeo’s campanile, close to the Rialto Bridge, is seen in the distance on the recto (D32041); however, the subject here is further east, away from the Grand Canal. As identified by Ian Warrell,4 it is the church of Santa Maria Formosa, on the Rio del Mondo Novo. The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.

There is a thumbnail sketch of the building on folio 31 verso (D31987), and another detailed view on folio 36 verso (D31996), presumably made on a separate occasion. Here, the entrance front is seen at the centre, set back on its broad quay, with the Ponte del Mondo Novo on this side and the Ponte delle Bande beyond. In the left foreground, the Fondamenta dei Preti leads to the bridge of the same name; only the upper stages of the soaring Baroque campanile appear over the houses, with its spire continued a short way over the gutter onto folio 60 recto opposite (D32043). D31996 is from nearer the church, with most of the campanile visible, together with Santa Maria’s central dome. The canal-side building at right-angles to the pedimented façade is shown in more detail this time, albeit on an oddly exaggerated scale, as its roofline’s height is actually similar to the church’s.

Although the perspective might suggest a fairly open setting, the canal is quite narrow between the tall buildings, with the broad diagonal hatching at the top left perhaps introduced to convey the shadowy constriction of the setting. Between here and folio 61 recto (D32042–D32045), Turner briefly explored the network of side canals towards the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (see under folio 32 verso; D31989), via the Rio del Pestrin (which he also drew earlier in the book as now foliated), under the bridge to his left, which is seen again at the centre on folio 60 recto opposite (D32043); compare the sequence between folios 31 verso and 36 verso (D31987–D31996). Beginning on folio 61 verso (D32046), there are several views of the Bridge of Sighs, some way to the south, albeit only a few turns away by boat.

Warrell has noted that Turner’s wider exploration of Venice on this occasion meant ‘he also penetrated more deeply into the side canals, and these routes introduced him to the churches of San Martino and Santa Giustina as well as to Santa Maria Formosa’;5 see also folios 36 verso, 50 recto and 71 verso (D31996, D32023, D32061).6 For this sketchbook’s somewhat convoluted general sequence, see its Introduction.

Technical notes:

Folios 57 verso–60 recto (D32038–D32043) all share a pale brown splash or stain across an outer corner (at the foot of the page as foliated).