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 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Valley of the Arno, from the Villa Medici, Fiesole 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Valley of the Arno, from the Villa Medici, Fiesole’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Recto:
Valley of the Arno, from the Villa Medici, Fiesole 1819
D16612
Turner Bequest CXCI 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Pelagnano]’ above horizon centre right and ‘Villa Medici’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 76’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription in the bottom right-hand corner of this sketch identifies his location as the Villa Medici, a fifteenth-century villa on the south-eastern outskirts of Fiesole near Florence. The vista appears to look south-west towards the distant course of the River Arno with distant mountains beyond. Further sketches from Fiesole can be found on folios 30 verso, 31, 74–75 verso, 76 verso–79 verso, 84 (D16542, D16543, D16608–D16611, D16613–D16619, D16627).

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Valley of the Arno, from the Villa Medici, Fiesole 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-valley-of-the-arno-from-the-villa-medici-fiesole-r1138505, accessed 20 August 2025.