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 Sketches of Salerno and the Bay from the Road from Cava de' Tirreni 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Salerno and the Bay from the Road from Cava de' Tirreni’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Recto:
Sketches of Salerno and the Bay from the Road from Cava de’ Tirreni 1819
D15986
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 38
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Red & white’ and ‘Salerno’ within bottom sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘38’ top left, ascending left-hand edge and ‘245’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 38’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains a sequence of sketches looking in various directions from the coastal road from Cava de’ Tirreni, at a point between Salerno and Vietri sul Mare. Three of these studies, including the one at the bottom, depict the view looking east across the town and bay of Salerno, with the surrounding mountainous peaks which form the backdrop to the coastline before it eases into the plain of Paestum. For a more detailed record of the same prospect see folio 40 verso (D15987; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 38a). Turner had made a copy of a similar view after John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831) in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (see Tate D13971; Turner Bequest CLXXII 21a), and is also likely to have been familiar with a drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), with whom he collaborated on the print project, Picturesque Views in Italy (published 1820).1

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
Town and Bay of Salerno circa 1816 (Library of the British School at Rome), see Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5.54, p.285.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of Salerno and the Bay from the Road from Cava de’ Tirreni 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-sketches-of-salerno-and-the-bay-from-the-road-from-cava-de-r1137910, accessed 26 April 2024.