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 Venice from the Canale di San Marco, with the Campanili of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco (St Mark's), and Santa Maria della Salute in the Distance; a Wooded Landscape 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Venice from the Canale di San Marco, with the Campanili of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco (St Mark's), and Santa Maria della Salute in the Distance; a Wooded Landscape’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Verso:
Venice from the Canale di San Marco, with the Campanili of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco (St Mark’s), and Santa Maria della Salute in the Distance; a Wooded Landscape 1840
D31841
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 26a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘View from S. Giorgio Maggiore’): ‘S. Giorgio on left, with Doge’s Palace & Campanile on right’.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy: ‘4 sketches (Campanile with scaffolding)’.2
With the page turned horizontally, there appear to be only two views, although each may be slightly disjointed. At the top is a prospect westwards from the Canale di San Marco, looking past the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore and its church on the left to the domes of Santa Maria della Salute, aligned beyond. Near the centre are distant campanili including Santo Stefano and San Moisè, with the nearer tower and domes of San Marco (St Mark’s) towards the right, complete with the tiers of scaffolding noted by Bell, an important dating feature for many 1840 views (see the tour Introduction).3 Folio 25 verso (D31839) includes a less detailed sketch from a similar position.
Below is a loose drawing (or two) of trees, perhaps made in the nearby Giardini Pubblici, with a low sun; various adjacent pages, including D31839, show it setting over prominent Venetian landmarks.

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, opposite p.1010.
2
Undated MS note by Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1010.
3
See also George 1971, p.86.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Venice from the Canale di San Marco, with the Campanili of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco (St Mark’s), and Santa Maria della Salute in the Distance; a Wooded Landscape 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-venice-from-the-canale-di-san-marco-with-the-campanili-of-r1196736, accessed 26 April 2024.