J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figures on the Quayside, Naples; and Two Views of the Coast from the Posillipo Hill 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Figures on the Quayside, Naples; and Two Views of the Coast from the Posillipo Hill 1819
D15662
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 53
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Cloth Square Basket Large W’ bottom centre of inverted sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘53’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 53’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three distinct landscape views associated with Turner’s sojourn in Naples. At the bottom of the sheet is a study of figures on a quayside with the silhouette of the Castel dell’Ovo visible in the background. Turner’s viewpoint is unidentified although it must be a location near the waterfront at Chiaia or Mergellina; the trees and large statue visible on the far left-hand side of the composition suggest that it may be the gardens of the Villa Reale. The main focus of the drawing however, is the men, women and children taking their leisure in the foreground. Amongst the incidents of human interest which the artist has recorded is a lady with a bonnet who appears to be leaning over the wall to look out to sea whilst a child tries to scramble up beside her. There is also a woman holding a baby, a pair of lovers, and a figure lying along the bench or wall in the bottom right-hand corner.
Inverted on the page are two further sketches which appear to depict the view looking south-west along the coast from the northern end of the long ridge of the hill of Posillipo.

Nicola Moorby
May 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Figures on the Quayside, Naples; and Two Views of the Coast from the Posillipo Hill 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-figures-on-the-quayside-naples-and-two-views-of-the-coast-r1138124, accessed 28 March 2024.