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 View of the Bay of Gaeta from Porto Caposele, Formia 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Bay of Gaeta from Porto Caposele, Formia’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Recto:
View of the Bay of Gaeta from Porto Caposele, Formia 1819
D15609
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘27’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 27’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After the town of Itri, the Via Appia rejoins the Tyrrhenian coast at Formia, which until the late nineteenth century was known as Mola di Gaeta. This sketch depicts a view looking south from Formia to the distant headland of the Bay of Gaeta. The arched structures in the central foreground represent the Porto Caposele, the remains of an ancient Roman port, which stand near the Villa Rubina, popularly known as the Villa of Cicero. A related vista can be seen on folio 28 verso (D15610; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 27a).
The far left-hand side of the page contains a small part of the landscape view from the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 27 verso (D15608; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 26a).

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Bay of Gaeta from Porto Caposele, Formia 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-view-of-the-bay-of-gaeta-from-porto-caposele-formia-r1138071, accessed 26 April 2024.