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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Town and Bay of Salerno from the West; and a View of Molina 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Town and Bay of Salerno from the West; and a View of Molina’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Verso:
Town and Bay of Salerno from the West; and a View of Molina 1819
D15987
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 38 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Moulina’ bottom right of top right sketch, parallel with right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main sketch on this page is a view looking east across the town and bay of Salerno from a point on the coastal road from Cava de’ Tirreni, near Vietri sul Mare. Visible in the centre of the composition is the campanile of the cathedral, whilst on the summit of the hill on the far left-hand side is the eighth-century Castello di Arechi (Arechi Castle). The prospect is similar to one after John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831) which Turner had copied in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (see Tate D13971; Turner Bequest CLXXII 21a). Prior to his visit to the area he is also likely to have seen a related drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), with whom he collaborated on the print project, Picturesque Views in Italy (published 1820).1 For further sketches of the same view see folio 40 (D15986; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 38).
There are two other landscape sketches on this sheet. The lower vista is unidentified but the study parallel with the right-hand edge has an inscription identifying it as a view of Molina, a small town in the valley north of Vietri sul Mare.

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
Town and Bay of Salerno circa 1816 (Library of the British School at Rome), see Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5.54, p.285.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Town and Bay of Salerno from the West; and a View of Molina 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-town-and-bay-of-salerno-from-the-west-and-a-view-of-molina-r1137911, accessed 19 April 2024.