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 Two Sketches of Castellamare di Stabia; and a View from Marina Grande, Sorrento 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches of Castellamare di Stabia; and a View from Marina Grande, Sorrento’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Recto:
Two Sketches of Castellamare di Stabia; and a View from Marina Grande, Sorrento 1819
D15847
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 59
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Timber | Fish and Boat Rubbish’ and ‘Blue Stripd | awning to Boats’ underneath sketch top right. Also ‘3’, ‘2’, ‘1’ and Sor’ underneath lower sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘59’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 59’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches at the top left and top right of this page both depict views of Castellammare di Stabia on the Sorrentine peninsula. Visible in the right-hand study is the waterfront with the cathedral and castle, with distant Pozzano on the right. The scene on the left is part of a larger composition continued on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 59 verso (D15846; Turner Bequest CLXXXV 58a). For a fuller description and further sketches of Castellammare see folio 59 (D15845).
As Turner’s inscription ‘Sor’ indicates, the lower study depicts a view of Sorrento. To the right is the small fishing village of Marina Grande, whilst beyond are the succeeding headlands which characterise the rocky coastline.1 The artist has numbered the various elements of the composition. The point numbered ‘3’ is the Punta Scutolo below Montechiaro. Marina Grande can also be seen on folio 64 verso (D15856; Turner Bequest CLXXXV 63a).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

1
Compare a watercolour by James Baker Pyne (1800–1879), Marina Grande, Sorrento 1858, see Victorian and British Impressionist Pictures, Christie’s, London, 17 November 2010, lot 27, reproduced in colour.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Sketches of Castellamare di Stabia; and a View from Marina Grande, Sorrento 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-two-sketches-of-castellamare-di-stabia-and-a-view-from-r1138316, accessed 25 April 2024.