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 Baths of Caracalla, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Baths of Caracalla, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Verso:
Baths of Caracalla, Rome 1819
D15367
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 38 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Cattle | Baths of Caracalla’ bottom left and ‘water’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts part of the ruins of the ‘Terme di Caracalla’ (Baths of Caracalla), an extensive complex of public baths near the Circus Maximus, which were built by the Emperor Caracalla in AD 217. Turner does not seem to have been as engaged by the remains as other monuments in the city and they appear in relatively few sketches. He did however make one coloured view of the vista looking across from the Palatine Hill with mountains in the far distance, see the Roman C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16334; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 8).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Baths of Caracalla, Rome 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-baths-of-caracalla-rome-r1132662, accessed 19 April 2024.