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 > Pompeii, Amalfi, &c., Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Atrani; and Two Views of Cetara from the Sea 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Atrani; and Two Views of Cetara from the Sea’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Verso:
?Atrani; and Two Views of Cetara from the Sea 1819
D15804
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 35 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Town of D]’ bottom right of top sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three distinct views. At the top of the sheet is a sketch which appears to depict boats moored in front of buildings. Although not conclusively identified, the steep topography of the location and the bell-tower at the top of the composition suggests that this may represent Atrani, a small coastal town to the east of Amalfi, see folio 35 (D15803).
The lower vista represents Cetara, another town on the Amalfi coast, west of Vietri sul Mare. Turner has also made a separate study of the waterfront sixteenth-century watch-tower, the Torre Vicereale. The artist’s viewpoint is from a boat on the sea and these are part of a sequence of sketches charting the stretch of coastline between Amalfi and Salerno, see also folios 36 and 48–54 (D15805 and D15825–D15837).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘?Atrani; and Two Views of Cetara from the Sea 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-atrani-and-two-views-of-cetara-from-the-sea-r1138271, accessed 16 April 2024.