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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Rome to Rimini Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Street Scene with the Church of Sant'Elena; Distant Mountains 1829

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Street Scene with the Church of Sant'Elena; Distant Mountains’ 1829
Folio 39 Verso:
Street Scene with the Church of Sant’Elena; Distant Mountains 1829
D14901
Turner Bequest CLXXVIII 39a
Pencil on white laid paper, 97 x 132 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘St Helene’ towards top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the upper half of this page is a street scene from an unidentified town or city, likely in Umbria, Marche or Emilia-Romagna. To the left is a large building with a loggia. Further buildings recede into the distance, and the view concludes to the right with a church and belltower. Turner’s upper inscription ‘St Helene’ is presumably an anglicisation of ‘Sant’Elena’, to whom the church is dedicated. Beneath, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, are two comparatively faint views of mountains dotted with trees or towers, presumably the distant Apennines.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Street Scene with the Church of Sant’Elena; Distant Mountains 1829’, catalogue entry, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/street-scene-with-the-church-of-santelena-distant-mountains-r1210271, accessed 22 July 2025.