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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Albano, Nemi, Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Frascati and the Roman Campagna from the Villa Rufinella 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Frascati and the Roman Campagna from the Villa Rufinella’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
View of Frascati and the Roman Campagna from the Villa Rufinella 1819
D15349
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Wilson Brown Campagna’ middle distance on left and ‘watr’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘29’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 29’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The building visible on the opposite page, see folio 28 verso (D15349) confirms that Turner’s viewpoint for this sketch was the Villa Ruffinella, one of a number of papal residences built high on the hill above the town of Frascati. In addition to the distant line of the Sabine mountains, the sweep of this panorama encompasses several other villas laid out in the valley beneath including the Villa Falconieri (centre foreground) with its laghetto (which Turner has labelled ‘wat[e]r’) and the Villa Mondragone (on higher ground, far right).
As was so often the case during his travels in the countryside surrounding Rome, Turner was reminded of the work of Richard Wilson, inscribing the Welsh master’s name on the horizon of the ‘Brown’ campagna.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Frascati and the Roman Campagna from the Villa Rufinella 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-of-frascati-and-the-roman-campagna-from-the-villa-r1132644, accessed 25 April 2024.