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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Finberg’s tentative suggestion of a Grand Canal subject1 has been confirmed in more detail by Ian Warrell.2 The view is to the north-west from the Bacino east of the Dogana, and forms the central part of a three-page panorama ranging west to the familiar customs house and Santa Maria della Salute on the verso (D32106), and north and north-east to encompass San Marco (St Mark’s), the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and churches beyond the Riva degli Schiavoni on folio 94 verso opposite (D32104).

On the present page, the steps to the Dogana’s porch are shown at the far left, at the entrance to the Grand Canal; they appear again at the far right of the verso. Among the palaces along the north side of the canal, the one seen corner-on at the centre is the Barozzi Emo Treves de Bonfili, with the entrance to the Rio di San Moisè to its right. The restored Palazzo Bauer now stands to the left of the most significant building here, the Gothic Palazzo Giustinian, occupying most of the right-hand third of the view. Now the headquarters of the Venice Biennale, it was then the Hotel Europa, where Turner was likely staying, as discussed in the Introduction to this sketchbook. Just behind it is the campanile of San Moisè, which is seen more clearly in a detail on D32104 opposite; see also folio 100 verso (D32116), where it is shown from an elevated position, likely Turner’s room at the back of the hotel. The building is also glimpsed to the north through the open porch of the Dogana on folio 94 recto (D32103), and in a looser study on folio 96 recto (D32107).

The drawings between folios 93 recto and 99 verso (D32101–D32114) are all of subjects within a small area around off the Dogana, along the north side of the Bacino and 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.