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 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Four Landscape Sketches on the Road from Rome to Florence; including the Pass of the Somma 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Landscape Sketches on the Road from Rome to Florence; including the Pass of the Somma’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Four Landscape Sketches on the Road from Rome to Florence; including the Pass of the Somma 1819
D16531
Turner Bequest CXCI 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Somma’ and ‘[?N.G]’ and ‘the [?Rici] [?... S X] [?approach] | towards [?Spoletto] [?vene]’ and ‘Snow’ and ‘[?Vene]’ within sketches
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 25’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner left Rome sometime in mid to late December and travelled on to Florence. This page contains four sketches which were probably drawn en route from a moving vehicle, retracing part of the road which Turner had taken in September on his journey south towards Rome from Ancona. Despite the rough nature of the drawings, annotations by the artist suggest that they depict views of the Pass of the Somma, the approach through the mountains towards Spoleto, and Le Vene, near the Temple of Clitumnus. Sketches related to these sites dating from the outward journey to Rome can be found in the Ancona to Rome sketchbook (see Tate D14722–D14737; Turner Bequest CLXXVII 36–43a).

Nicola Moorby
February 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Landscape Sketches on the Road from Rome to Florence; including the Pass of the Somma 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, 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-four-landscape-sketches-on-the-road-from-rome-to-florence-r1138424, accessed 25 April 2024.