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 Florence from the West 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Florence from the West’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Recto:
Florence from the West 1819
D16597
Turner Bequest CXCI 66
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘66’ top left, inverted [very faint]
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 66’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight sketch depicts Florence from the southern bank of the Arno to the west of Ponte alla Carraia and the city centre. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be a location on the Lungarno between the weir, Pescaia di Santa Rosa and present-day Ponte Amerigo Vespucci (built during the twentieth century).1 The vista looks up-river and silhouetted on the opposite bank are, from left to right, the small dome of San Lorenzo, the large dome and campanile of the Duomo, and the tower of Palazzo Vecchio.
1
Not as Cecilia Powell has previously has suggested the Cascine which is further west on the opposite bank. Powell 1987, p.205 note 26.
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
January 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Florence from the West 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-florence-from-the-west-r1138490, accessed 26 April 2024.