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 A View of Florence from the North; and a Landscape Sketch at ?Narni 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A View of Florence from the North; and a Landscape Sketch at ?Narni’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Recto:
A View of Florence from the North; and a Landscape Sketch at ?Narni 1819
D16603
Turner Bequest CXCI 70
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?L] Narni’ and ‘Flo’ within sketches
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘70’ top left, inverted [very faint]
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 70’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The most detailed sketch on this page, in the bottom right-hand corner of the sheet, depicts a distant view of Florence from the north. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be near the Porta San Gallo, the northernmost point of entry to the city at Piazza Cavour (present-day Piazza della Libertà), and visible along the horizon are the silhouettes of Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo. Related views can be seen on folios 59 and 59 verso (D16583 and D16584).
Also on the page is a very rough, schematic view of hilly Italian landscape. A faint inscription suggests the subject may depict Narni, a town in Umbria which the artist passed en route between Rome and Florence, see folio 25 (D16529).
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
January 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘A View of Florence from the North; and a Landscape Sketch at ?Narni 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-a-view-of-florence-from-the-north-and-a-landscape-sketch-at-r1138496, accessed 24 April 2024.