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

Having departed from Rome, Turner journeyed north-east during the first week of January 1829, crossing the Apennine Mountains in Umbria and reaching the Marche region on the east coast. Among the hilltop towns he sketched as he approached Ancona were Macerata, Recanati, Loreto and Osimo.

This page contains three slight studies of various locations in Marche, executed with the sketchbook turned vertically. The location of the upper buildings is difficult to pinpoint, although Turner’s rough inscription possibly reads ‘Recanati’. As noted by Cecilia Powell, beneath is a distant view of ‘Loreto’, a location also identified by Turner’s lower inscription.1 The town is overlooked by the Sanctuary of Santa Casa, an important site of Catholic pilgrimage.2

For further studies of Loreto in the present sketchbook, see folios 32 verso–33 recto and 41 verso (D14888–D14889, D14903). Turner also sketched Loreto extensively during his first major tour of Italy in 1819–20; see Nicola Moorby’s entries in the present catalogue for the Ancona to Rome sketchbook (Tate D14653–D14655, D14657, D14662, D14664, D14670–D14680, D14685, D14708; Turner Bequest CLXXVII 1–3, 5a, 6a, 9a–14a, 17, 29).