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 Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Recto:
Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 1819
D15829
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 50
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘50’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 50’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner appears to have travelled by boat between Salerno, Amalfi and Sorrento, sketching the towns dotted along the rugged Amalfi coast from the sea. This page contains three studies related to that trip. The largest view in the centre depicts a view of the coastline at Salerno. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread with nearby Vietri sul Mare and Raito, see folio 49 verso (D15828). Similar studies can be seen on folios 36–36 verso, 48 verso–49 (D15805–D15806, D15827–D15827).
The remaining two sketches in the top and bottom right-hand corners both depict Cetara, a small town which lies in a bay to the west of Vietri sul Mare. Visible in both views is the dome of the Church of San Pietro Apostolo and the Torre Vicereale, one the numerous sixteenth-century watch-towers which can be found all along this part of the Amalfi coast. Two further towers can be seen in the uppermost vista looking west towards the headland of Capo d’Orso. Further views of Cetara can be seen on folio 35 verso and 48 (D15804 and D15825).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 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-sketches-of-the-amalfi-coast-from-the-sea-with-salerno-and-r1138296, accessed 20 September 2024.