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 > Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell'Ovo and the Island of Capri 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell'Ovo and the Island of Capri’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell’Ovo and the Island of Capri 1819
D15913
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 3 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg first identified, the sequence of sketches on folios 3 verso–12 (D15913–D15919 and D15922–D15930) represents detailed panoramic views of Naples drawn from the sea.1 The artist perhaps had the opportunity to make these drawings from a boat during the outward or return trip to Paestum and the Amalfi Coast. Visible in this study is the headland of the Castel dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg) seen from the north-east, with the island of Capri visible along the horizon to the left. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 4 (D15914).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
Finberg 1909, p.551.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell’Ovo and the Island of Capri 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-naples-from-the-sea-with-castel-dellovo-and-the-island-of-r1137839, accessed 16 April 2024.