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 > Marseilles to Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ventimiglia, from the West 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ventimiglia, from the West’ 1828
Folio 31 Recto:
Ventimiglia, from the West 1828
D21191
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘31’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 31’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made several sketches of Ventimiglia, on the Ligurian coast, approximately four miles from the border with France. This example, with the page turned horizontally, depicts the topographical profile of the old town from the west.1 The artist was standing near the Porta Nizza (Gate of Nice), the archway visible on the far left-hand side of the composition, looking east along the medieval walls with the shoreline on the right. Visible near the centre are the church of San Francesco and the cathedral.
For further views of Ventimiglia, see folios 30 verso opposite and 31 verso–35 verso (D21190, D21192–D21200). See also the Coast of Genoa sketchbook from 1838, when Turner revisited this location (Tate D21283; Turner Bequest CCXXXII 7).
1
See Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.5, as ‘Ventimiglia’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
Technical notes:
There is an area of staining in the bottom-left corner of the page, probably caused by water damage.

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ventimiglia, from the West 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2017, revised by Hannah Kaspar, 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/ventimiglia-from-the-west-r1209869, accessed 06 July 2025.