Finberg later annotated his 1909
Inventory entry (‘View on Grand Canal’): ‘‘From nr San Marcuola’’.
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 The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Except for folio 58 verso (
D32040), the drawings between folio 56 verso and here (
D32036–D32041) show aspects of the north-eastern reaches of the Grand Canal. For this sketchbook’s somewhat convoluted general sequence, see its Introduction.
While Turner’s viewpoint was indeed off the church of San Marcuola for folio 58 recto (
D32039), another view in this direction, here he was stationed somewhat further east opposite the Ca’ Pesaro, seen at the very edge of the page on the right. The prospect is to the south-east, centred on the onion dome of San Bartolomeo’s cupola, just on the far side of the Rialto Bridge, which is out of sight here around a sharp bend to the right. Shown just to the right, but about twice as far off, is the familiar campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s), aligned left of the belfry of San Giovanni Elemosinario, north of the Rialto. To the left of San Bartolomeo, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi and the Fabbriche Nuove are on the far and near sides of the bend respectively.
In the left foreground is the canal front of the Palazzo Gussoni Grimani, which seems set too high in relation to the rest of the scene, as the oblique features at the centre left appear to include its front door, actually immediately above water level, albeit the steps in front here give the suggestion of an unnaturally elevated position. Beyond, the alignments settle down, with the tall western corner of the continuous Palazzi Boldù a San Felice and Contarini Pisani, and the twin obelisk-like chimneys of the Palazzo Fontana Rezzonico.
Returning from the Rialto along the far side, the large, neo-Gothic Pescaria building now overlooks the canal on this side of the Fabbriche Nuove. Several smaller, less distinct palaces follow before the heavily articulated Renaissance façade of the Ca’ Corner della Regina (a ‘5’ between two vertical strokes enumerating the continuous bays with windows at its centre), with the rounded penthouse gable of the Palazzo Donà below it.
In determining to include part of the Ca’ Pesaro, Turner ran out of space at this point and had to include the Donà’s smaller immediate neighbour, the Palazzo Correggio as a separate sketch at the top right. The other details there are from the classical upper storeys of the Pesaro, and one of its twin entrance archways, flanking the central niche. There are cursory indications of one of the river god figures in the archways’ spandrels, and the row of prominent carved corbels just above water level. There are letters scattered across the drawing as abbreviated colour notes of various red and white features.
Folio 56 verso (
D32036) is from a little further back, with the Corner and Pesaro palaces in the immediate foreground. Compare a detailed pencil drawing from nearer the Rialto in the 1819
Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate
D14461; Turner Bequest CLXXV 76a). Elsewhere in the present book, see folios 49 verso, 77 verso and 82 verso (
D32022,
D32072,
D32082). In 1840, Turner made a slighter pencil sketch in the
Venice; Passau to Würzburg book (Tate
D31303; Turner Bequest CCCX 14), and a watercolour study in the
Grand Canal and Giudecca book (
D32178; CCCXVI 41).
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