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 Vesuvius from the Mole, Naples 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vesuvius from the Mole, Naples’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
Vesuvius from the Mole, Naples 1819
D15628
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘37’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 37’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a number of sketches of the lively bustle of shipping and human activity within the old port in Naples. This view is taken looking east from the entrance to the Mole, an L-shaped pier which stood at right angles to the quayside beside Castel Nuovo, near the site of the present-day ferry terminal of Molo Angioino (Stazione Marittima). The building visible to the left appears to be the small guard house which stood at the end of the Mole facing the lighthouse which is just out of sight to the right of the vista. Dominating the background is the vast outline of Monte Somma and the smoking crater of Vesuvius on the right.

Nicola Moorby
May 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Vesuvius from the Mole, Naples 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-vesuvius-from-the-mole-naples-r1138090, accessed 26 April 2024.