Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Castel Gandolfo at Sunset 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
View of Castel Gandolfo at Sunset 1819
D15325
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 17
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 17
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the ?artist in pencil ‘17’ top left and by the artist ‘Novr [?9] 1819 Novr’ along top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘17’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 17’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘17’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 17’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.536 (as ‘Pope’s villa, Albano, “Nov. 9, 1819” ’).
1925
Thomas Ashby, Turner’s Visions of Rome, London and New York 1925, p.13.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, p.[158].
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.384 no.731.
1981
William Chubb, ‘Turner’s “Cicero at his Villa”’, Burlington Magazine, vol.123, July 1981, p.418.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner and the Bandits: ‘Lake Albano’ rediscovered’, Turner Studies, Summer 1984, vol.3, no.2, p.23.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.177 note 29, 194 note 102, 196 note 110, 262 note 123, 472 note 7, 497 note 102.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.[36] note 6, 78 note 23, [88] note 78, 89 note 81.
2000
David Hill, Joseph Mallord William Turner: Le Mont-Blanc et la Vallée d’Aoste, exhibition catalogue, Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta / Musée Archéologique Régional, Aoste 2000, p.295.
Turner circled Lake Albano on foot and made several drawings from various points. The landmark he depicted most frequently was Castel Gandolfo, particularly the dome of the Church of St Tommaso di Villanova and the Pope’s villa, seen on the heights above Lake Albano. His viewpoint in this sketch was the northern end of the lake below Marino and he has depicted the rays of the sun setting in the west to the right of the town.
For a full discussion of Turner’s depictions of Lake Albano see folio 3 verso (D15301) and the general introduction to the sketchbook.
Nicola Moorby
May 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Castel Gandolfo at Sunset 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www