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 View of the Coastline South-West from Roquebrune to Monaco; the Prince's Palace of Monaco 1828

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Coastline South-West from Roquebrune to Monaco; the Prince's Palace of Monaco’ 1828
Folio 23 Verso:
View of the Coastline South-West from Roquebrune to Monaco; the Prince’s Palace of Monaco 1828
D21178
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 23a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main sketch on this page, turned horizontally, is a view of the mountainous coastline looking south-west from Roquebrune towards Monaco.1 Visible on the heights to the right is La Turbie with the high promontory of the Tȇte de Chien above, and the landscape falls dramatically away down to the Rocher de Monaco on the far left.
Also on the page, at the top left, is a detailed study of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco.2 The official residence of the Sovereign Prince of Monaco, the palace is situated on the Rocher de Monaco and is an asymmetric blend of architectural styles. Turner’s sketch is an accurate record of the main Renaissance-style façade seen from the south-east, with the Baroque entrance on the left and St Mary’s tower on the right. A distant view of the palace can be found on folio 24 verso (D21180), while a view of the coastline from the palace can be seen on folio 24 recto opposite (D21179).

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

1
Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.286, and Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.5, as ‘Monaco’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Coastline South-West from Roquebrune to Monaco; the Prince’s Palace of Monaco 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/view-of-the-coastline-south-west-from-roquebrune-to-monaco-the-princes-palace-of-monaco-r1209856, accessed 26 June 2025.