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 > Passage of the Simplon Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ponte Romano, across the Diveria River near Varzo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ponte Romano, across the Diveria River near Varzo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Ponte Romano, across the Diveria River near Varzo 1819
D16930
Turner Bequest CXCIV 22
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘N Road’ and ‘Old Road’ within sketch, centre left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCIV 22’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is the Ponte Romano, a distinctive single arch Roman bridge which spans the Diveria river south of Varzo, near Crevoladossola.1 Popularly known as the ‘New Bridge’, the crossing was built around 1300 AD to replace the previous structure erected by Augustus. Turner passed the bridge en route from the Simplon between Gondo and Domodossola. A further sketch can be seen on folio 37 (D16956).

Nicola Moorby
May 2011

1
Crimi 2007, p.35 note 46. Compare also the print after C. Hullmandel, Between Crevola and Gondo, in Views to Illustrate the Route of the Simplon, London 1822, pl.XXXII.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ponte Romano, across the Diveria River near Varzo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2011, 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-ponte-romano-across-the-diveria-river-near-varzo-r1132805, accessed 16 April 2024.