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 Mergellina and the Posillipo Hill from the Chiaia Waterfront, Naples 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mergellina and the Posillipo Hill from the Chiaia Waterfront, Naples’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 65 Verso:
Mergellina and the Posillipo Hill from the Chiaia Waterfront, Naples 1819
D16034
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 63 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘3’ and ‘S’ within sketch bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts the view looking south-west along the Neapolitan coastline towards Mergellina and the Posillipo Hill. The statues and other ornamental features visible in the right-hand foreground suggest that Turner’s viewpoint is the Villa Reale (present-day Villa Comunale), a park and royal promenade which runs along the length of the Chiaia waterfront between Piazza Vittoria and Piazza della Repubblica. Built in the late eighteenth century for the Bourbon King, Ferdinand IV, the park contained a number of sculptures and fountains, including the famous Farnese Bull, see folio 54 verso (D16015; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 52a). For a view looking in the opposite direction towards Castel dell’Ovo and Vesuvius see folio 66 (D16035; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 64). Related vistas can also be found in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15656–D15657; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 50–50a).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Mergellina and the Posillipo Hill from the Chiaia Waterfront, Naples 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-mergellina-and-the-posillipo-hill-from-the-chiaia-waterfront-r1137958, accessed 21 September 2024.