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 The Gulf of Naples, Seen from Vesuvius 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Gulf of Naples, Seen from Vesuvius’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
The Gulf of Naples, Seen from Vesuvius 1819
D15639
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 41 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Cecilia Powell first identified, Turner made a series of sketches of Naples and the surrounding landscape as seen from the ascent to the summit of Vesuvius, see folio 46 verso (D15645; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 44a).1 This rough pencil study is one of a number of similar on-the-spot views to depict the semi-circular sweep of the Bay and Gulf of Naples looking west/south-west from the slopes of the volcano.2 The small headland of Castel dell’Ovo juts into the sea on the right-hand side of the curving bay, whilst in the distance on the left is the coastline of Posillipo and the island of Ischia. The low position of the sun in the west indicates that Turner sketch was made near the end of the day. Part of the composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 44 (D15640; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 42).

Nicola Moorby
May 2010

1
Powell 1984, p.424.
2
For a similar view compare John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831), City of Naples from Vesuvius 1778–9 (Tate, T08509).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Gulf of Naples, Seen from Vesuvius 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-the-gulf-of-naples-seen-from-vesuvius-r1138101, accessed 19 April 2024.