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 Sant'Elmo and Castel Nuovo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel Sant'Elmo and Castel Nuovo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Naples from the Sea, with Castel Sant’Elmo and Castel Nuovo 1819
D15926
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 10
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’ top right and ‘245’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 10’ bottom right
 
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, perhaps dating from the outward or return trip to Paestum and the Amalfi coast which Turner undertook during his sojourn in the city.1 This study depicts a view of the waterfront from the south-east between Santa Lucia and the old port. The details are rather faint but it is just possible to make out along the shoreline the long façade of the Palazzo Reale and the Castel Nuovo with the Mole extending into the sea in front. Rising above the coast on the left-hand side is the hill surmounted by Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, whilst to the right is Capodimonte. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 9 verso (D15925).
Also inverted on this page is a rough, outline drawing of an unidentified landscape view.

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
Finberg 1909, p.551.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel Sant’Elmo and Castel Nuovo 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-santelmo-and-castel-nuovo-r1137850, accessed 25 April 2024.