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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal; the Porch of the Dogana 1833

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal; the Porch of the Dogana’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 94 Recto:
The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal; the Porch of the Dogana 1833
D32103
Turner Bequest CCCXIV 94
Pencil on white laid paper, 109 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘C G’ (countermark)
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘w’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘94’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXIV – 94’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main drawing and the smaller related study above were made with the page turned horizontally. As Finberg recognised,1 the familiar key features are the porch of the Dogana, overlooking the Bacino, and the domes of the church of Santa Maria della Salute beyond to its west, with boats moored in the foreground. The viewpoint is roughly midway between the Piazzetta and the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore. Here, as in the slighter view on folio 93 recto (D32101), the Grand Canal is seen running west beyond the Dogana, with the east flank of the Palazzo (or Ca’) Corner della Ca’ Granda over the lower rooflines of nearer palaces. Towards the right, the only other structure shown in detail is the campanile of Santo Stefano, about twice as far off as the Dogana, to the west-north-west.
Above the main view is a study of the south front of the Dogana’s porch, presented as an architectural elevation. This complements the wider view on folio 93 verso opposite (D32102), where the building appears in foreground from a little to the left. In the present view, Turner has included a plan of the round section of the free-standing column and the square pillar to its left, continuous with the beginning of the building’s south front, where the first of six arched windows and doors is shown. Inconspicuously but significantly, the Hotel Europa (Palazzo Giustinian) is glimpsed through the open porch; as discussed in this sketchbook’s Introduction, Turner was likely staying there on this occasion, and perhaps recalled making a careful pencil study from that direction in his 1819 Milan to Venice sketchbook (D14389; Turner Bequest CLXXV 40).
The hotel is seen towards the right on folio 95 recto (D32105), while the Dogana and Salute are shown in more detail from slightly further west on folio 95 verso (D32106); both pages are part of a panoramic view which begins on the verso of the present leaf (D32104). The drawings between folios 93 recto and 99 verso (D32101–D32114) are all of subjects within a small area around the Grand Canal’s Bacino entrance off the Dogana, the north side of the Bacino, along the Molo and up the Piazzetta into the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square). For this sketchbook’s somewhat convoluted general sequence, see its Introduction.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.1016.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Entrance to the Grand Canal; the Porch of the Dogana 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-dogana-and-santa-maria-della-salute-venice-from-the-r1203779, accessed 25 June 2025.