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 > Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Large Baths and Praetorium 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Large Baths and Praetorium’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 34 Recto:
Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Large Baths and Praetorium 1819
D14988
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 34
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘34’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 34’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a brief detour en route to Tivoli in order to visit the Villa Adriana, the imperial summer retreat of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. He used the time that was available to him to make several swift studies of the key buildings of interest, see folio 32 verso (D14985). Cecilia Powell first correctly identified the subjects of the sketches on this page.1 The drawing at the bottom of the sheet represents a view of the western corner of the Praetorium (a pavilion with a panoramic view overlooking the rest of the estate) with part of the Large Baths (Grande Terme) on the right. Turner’s viewpoint is standing to the north of the Praetorium looking towards the vast substructures of the foundations and the surviving traces of the walls. The drawing in the top right-hand corner represents a general view of the Large Baths (Grande Terme).

Nicola Moorby
January 2010

1
Powell 1984, p.410.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Large Baths and Praetorium 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2010, 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-sketches-of-the-villa-adriana-tivoli-the-large-baths-and-r1137620, accessed 16 April 2024.