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

There are several studies here, all made with the page turned horizontally, from around the western end of the Canale della Giudecca. Across the top is what seems to be the distant skyline of the mainland across the lagoon to the west; compare the distance of Tate D32129 (Turner Bequest CCCXV 13), a sunset watercolour view in the contemporary Grand Canal and Giudecca sketchbook.

Annotations at the top left indicate the church of Santa Marta, then at the western tip of Venice on the north side of the canal (but now overlooking the modern docks to its west). The tower to its right may be its campanile, demolished in 1910,1 although another view of the church on the recto (D31852) does not include the structure. Compare a drawing in the contemporary Venice; Passau to Würzburg sketchbook (Tate D31290; Turner Bequest CCCX 7a), where it is shown with a cupola, possibly omitted here in haste or to avoid the upper view. The disk to the left of Turner’s notes is the setting sun, as also shown on the recto.

Across the centre there appears to be a fragmentary prospect along the canal to the south-south-east, with only the Redentore church shown in detail on the right. Turner’s variant ‘P Lugo’ (or possibly ‘Lngo’) notes refer to the Rio del Ponte Lungo and its bridge, shown foreshortened in the foreground; see also the similar inscription on folio 27 recto (D31842). The view eastwards on folio 31 recto (D31850) is from a little beyond the bridge, nearer the church.

Below, separated by a pencil line, is a view along the north side of the canal starting a little east of Santa Marta with the twin campanili of the Angelo Raffaele church labelled at the left, and the nearby campanile of San Sebastiano to its right with that of the Carmini beyond towards the centre. To the right is the truncated view east to the dome of the Gesuati on the waterfront or Santa Maria della Salute (just visible to its left beyond from this angle), with the stepped scaffolding on the spire of the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) indicated in the distance. The Angelo Raffaele’s domed towers are seen again in the Venice; Passau to Würzburg book (Tate D31287–D31288; Turner Bequest CCCX 6, 6a), including a similar waterfront view.

Ian Warrell has noted that 1840 Giudecca studies such as those on folios 17 recto (D32823) and 30 verso–33 recto (D31849–D31854) here, and in Venice; Passau to Würzburg (Tate D31288–D31293; Turner Bequest CCCX 6a–9), show how Turner ‘really began to see that this previously neglected quarter offered original ways of seeing Venice’.2