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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice and Botzen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Ca' Pesaro; the Façade of the Ca' d'Oro 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Ca' Pesaro; the Façade of the Ca' d'Oro’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Verso:
The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Ca’ Pesaro; the Façade of the Ca’ d’Oro 1840
D31859
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 35a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wh’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Po] Doro’ bottom left and ‘Pesaro’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘On the Grand Canal – “Pesaro.”’), adding his reading of Turner’s less conspicuous second inscription: ‘“Ca Doro”’.1
There are three sketches here, made with the page turned horizontally. Across the middle, the main one, like one of those on the recto (D31858), shows the view south-east along the Grand Canal towards the Rialto, with the heavily articulated Ca’ Pesaro labelled in the right foreground; the zig-zags indicate the rustication of its ground floor. Just beyond is the similarly imposing bulk of the Ca’ Corner della Regina, with what seem to be the north end of the Fabbriche Nuove and the campanile of San Bartolomeo beyond on that side.
The run of palaces opposite is shown in swift, selective detail, with a separate thumbnail elevation of the Ca’ d’Oro’s intricate, asymmetrical façade at the bottom left, inscribed ‘Po’ or ‘Ca Doro’, as Finberg noted. Compare the more elaborate detail in the corner of a similar overall view in the contemporary Venice; Passau to Würzburg book (Tate D31303; Turner Bequest CCCX 14).
Above, at the outer edge, is an unrelated view south-east across the Bacino to the familiar island and church of San Giorgio Maggiore, seen again from this side on folio 39 verso (D31867).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1010.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Ca’ Pesaro; the Façade of the Ca’ d’Oro 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-grand-canal-venice-with-the-ca-pesaro-the-facade-of-the-r1196754, accessed 19 June 2025.