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 The North End of the Forum, Rome, Looking East 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The North End of the Forum, Rome, Looking East’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 58 Verso:
The North End of the Forum, Rome, Looking East 1819
D15406
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 57 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner thoroughly explored the Roman Forum (Campo Vaccino) and made numerous sketches from various angles. This sketch of the north end looking east is drawn from an area of high ground in the western corner, with the eight columns of the Temple of Saturn in the foreground. On the left is the Temple of Vespasian whilst on the right is the Column of Phocas. In the distance on the far right is the Baroque façade of the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda with the surrounding portico of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the large adjacent ruins of the Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius.
The sketch continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 59 (D15407; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 58). For a general discussion of the Forum and further studies see folio 32 (D15355).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The North End of the Forum, Rome, Looking East 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-the-north-end-of-the-forum-rome-looking-east-r1132701, accessed 25 April 2024.