J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

The city of Salerno lies on the Amalfi coast within the Gulf of Salerno, approximately thirty miles south-east of Naples. Turner passed through en route to the Greek temples at Paestum and made a number of sketches of the harbour and the surrounding bay. This study depicts a view from the shoreline to the east looking west in the direction of Vietri sul Mare, a town which can be seen in the distance beyond the Mole on the left-hand side of the bay. Visible in the centre of the prospect is the dome and bell-tower of the fourteenth-century Church, the Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata near Porta Catena, whilst on the summit of the hill to the far right-hand side is the eighth-century Castello di Arechi (Arechi Castle). Part of the composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 37 verso (D15981; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 35a).

As a young man, Turner made a copy of a similar watercolour composition by another artist, probably John Robert Cozens (1752–1797), see Dr Monro’s Album of Italian Views (Tate D36471; Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII 58).1 For further sketches of Salerno see folios 39–39 verso and 87 verso–88 (D15984–D15985 and D16078–D16079; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 37–37a and 85a–86) and the Pompeii, Amalfi, Sorrento, Herculaneum sketchbook (Tate D15824; Turner Bequest CLXXXV 47a).