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 > Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Part of a View of Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo from the Galleria di Sopra 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Part of a View of Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo from the Galleria di Sopra’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Part of a View of Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo from the Galleria di Sopra 1819
D15563
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘5’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s journey from Rome to Naples took him into the Alban Hills south of the capital, past the volcanic crater lakes of Albano and Nemi. This sketch is part of a panoramic view taken from the Galleria di Sopra (Upper Gallery), a tree-lined avenue above the shores of Lake Albano. The vista looks north-west towards the Papal Palace at Castel Gandolfo, which can be seen on the far left-hand side of the page. Visible on the distant horizon beyond is Rome itself, with the dome of St Peter’s. In the foreground of the right-hand corner are a couple of small figures including a contadina or Italian peasant woman carrying a bundle on her head. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 5 (D15563). For further sketches and a discussion of Turner’s views of Lake Albano see folio 3 (D15559).

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of a View of Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo from the Galleria di Sopra 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-part-of-a-view-of-lake-albano-and-castel-gandolfo-from-the-r1138025, accessed 19 April 2024.