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 > Pompeii, Amalfi, &c., Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Amalfi Coast, with a Distant View of Atrani and Ravello 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Amalfi Coast, with a Distant View of Atrani and Ravello’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Recto:
View of the Amalfi Coast, with a Distant View of Atrani and Ravello 1819
D15831
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 51
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘51’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 51’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
One of the best ways to experience the rugged scenery of the Amalfi coast is by boat and this sketch is one of a series of views which Turner drew from the sea on a journey between Salerno, Amalfi and Sorrento. His viewpoint for this study is a point to the west of the Capo d’Orso looking south-west towards distant Atrani, a small village adjacent to Amalfi which is identifiable on the far-left-hand side from the distinctive spiralling shoreline substructures beneath the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena. Above Atrani to the right is Ravello, whilst the town situated in the bay beneath Ravello is Maiori. Perched above the sea amongst the rocks to the right are a couple of the many sixteenth-century watch-towers which form a chain of defence along this part of the coast. A small part of the composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 50 verso (D15831). For further sketches of the Amalfi coast see folio 47 verso (D15824).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Amalfi Coast, with a Distant View of Atrani and Ravello 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-view-of-the-amalfi-coast-with-a-distant-view-of-atrani-and-r1138298, accessed 01 April 2026.