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 The Capuchin Convent, Amalfi; ?Conca dei Marini; and Part of a View of Amalfi 1819

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Capuchin Convent, Amalfi; ?Conca dei Marini; and Part of a View of Amalfi’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Verso:
The Capuchin Convent, Amalfi; ?Conca dei Marini; and Part of a View of Amalfi 1819
D15820
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 45 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Conca’ bottom right of top sketch, and ‘Conca’ bottom right of centre sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three distinct sketches. The upper view depicts the twelfth-century Capuchin convent in Amalfi (present-day Grand Hotel Convento di Amalfi), which could be reached by ascending a staircase from the beach to the west of the town. The convent’s picturesque location on the edge of the cliffs above the sea made it a popular subject for landscape artists visiting this part of the coast.1 Further views can be seen on folios 34 verso and 54 verso (D15802 and D15838). It is not clear why Turner has annotated this, and the second sketch, with the inscription ‘Conca’, although presumably this refers to the town of Conca dei Marini to the west of Amalfi. The small building just visible on the hill in the distance perhaps represents the Church of San Pancrazio on the heights above the town.
The details at the bottom of the page belong to the view of Amalfi on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 46 (D15821).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

1
See for example an oil painting by Carl Blechen (1798–1810), The Capuchin Convent at Amalfi circa 1829 (National Gallery), reproduced on-line at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/carl-blechen-the-capuchin-convent-at-amalfi, accessed October 2010.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Capuchin Convent, Amalfi; ?Conca dei Marini; and Part of a View of Amalfi 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-the-capuchin-convent-amalfi-conca-dei-marini-and-part-of-a-r1138287, accessed 19 April 2024.