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 Three Landscape Sketches Including a Distant View of Gensano; and Studies of Figures at Capua 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Landscape Sketches Including a Distant View of Gensano; and Studies of Figures at Capua’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 90 Recto:
Three Landscape Sketches Including a Distant View of Gensano; and Studies of Figures at Capua 1819
D16082
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 88
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘St Agatha’ bottom right of sketch second from top, and ‘Gensano’ bottom centre of sketch third from top. Also ‘Capua’ to left of figure of woman, parallel with right-hand edge, and ‘ylo’ within sketch of skirt
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘88’ top left, ascending left-hand edge, and ‘245’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 88’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three sketches which appear to depict a tabernacle or roadside altar within a landscape. The rough nature of the drawings suggests that they were drawn from the road, perhaps from a moving vehicle. Turner’s inscription indicates that the bottom vista represents a distant view of the town of Genzano di Roma, see also folio 90 verso (D16083; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 88a), but the meaning of ‘St Agatha’ currently remains unidentified. Other studies bearing the same annotation can be found on folios 62 verso–63 (D16028–D16029; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 60a–61).
Also on the page are a couple of swift figure studies recording details of Italian peasant costume. The artist has noted that these were made at Capua, a town on the Via Appia just north of Naples.

Nicola Moorby
September 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Three Landscape Sketches Including a Distant View of Gensano; and Studies of Figures at Capua 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-three-landscape-sketches-including-a-distant-view-of-gensano-r1138007, accessed 16 April 2024.