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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Although slight enough to elude Finberg,1 the subject is depicted in enough detail, as confirmed by Ian Warrell,2 to be recognisable as a view south across the Grand Canal, beyond boats and figures to the porch of the Dogana overlooking the Bacino on the left, and the austere forms of the Seminario Patriarcale to the right, below a loose indication of the integral south-eastern campanile of Santa Maria della Salute.

The scene was long familiar, as discussed under folio 80 verso (D32078), following a watercolour study in the 1819 Como and Venice sketchbook (Tate D15256; Turner Bequest CLXXXI 6). There is another southwards view, this time from the west of the church, on folio 90 verso (D32096); as discussed in this book’s Introduction, Turner was likely staying just over the canal, at the Hotel Europa (Palazzo Giustinian).

The tentative wording of the inscription at the right, perhaps ‘Mon[n]acco | [...] Carrnoeo’ is similar to another (apparently ‘Jacomo Monocco’) on folio 92 verso (D32100), a view inside the basilica of San Marco (St Mark’s). The notes presumably relate to that subject, of which there is another sketch directly opposite on folio 92 recto (D32097), rather than the present scene; as noted under D32100, Giacomo Monaco had been involved with the restoration of the basilica’s mosaics. For this sketchbook’s somewhat convoluted general sequence, see its Introduction.

As listed in the overall technical notes, this is one of three leaves in this sketchbook with a blank recto and a drawing on the verso not distinguished as such by the customary ‘a’ suffix to its number in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.3 When Tate accession numbers were assigned, the recto was initially designated D32097, with this side as D32098; the latter was subsequently cancelled, and the first number now applies to the present page. The otherwise blank recto is inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘91’ and stamped in black ‘CCCXIV – 91’ at the bottom right, in sequence with adjacent leaves.