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 Distant View of Naples and Vesuvius from Via Posillipo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Naples and Vesuvius from Via Posillipo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 86 Recto:
Distant View of Naples and Vesuvius from Via Posillipo 1819
D16075
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 84
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘84’ bottom left, inverted, and ‘245’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 84’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner travelled the length of the Posillipo coastline on a new road built during the early nineteenth century, the Via Posillipo. This sketch depicts the view looking east across the Bay of Naples towards the distant city on the left and Vesuvius on the right. The summit of the volcano is wreathed in cloud and there is a small smoke trail emanating from the cone. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be a point on the road near the historic villas of Roccaromana and Martinelli (near present-day Piazza San Luigi).
For further views from the Via Posillipo see 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, D16106; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 7–9, 18).

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Distant View of Naples and Vesuvius 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-naples-and-vesuvius-from-via-posillipo-r1137999, accessed 26 April 2024.