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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Vesuvius and the Sorrentine Peninsula, from Via Posillipo 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Verso:
Distant View of Vesuvius and the Sorrentine Peninsula, from Via Posillipo 1819
D16072
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 82 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ? John Ruskin in red ink ‘1274’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a view looking east towards Vesuvius and the distant Sorrentine peninsula from the Posillipo coastline. The precise location remains unidentified but there are a number of houses and villas scattered along the tops of the cliffs. For a similar vista see the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16106; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 18). Related views from the Via Posillipo can be seen on folios 83 verso–87 (D16070–D16077; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 81a–85), as well as the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15669; Turner Bequest 56a) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16094–6; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 7–9).

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Distant View of Vesuvius and the Sorrentine Peninsula, from Via Posillipo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-distant-view-of-vesuvius-and-the-sorrentine-peninsula-from-r1137996, accessed 20 September 2024.