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 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13944
Turner Bequest CLXXII 7 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
Modern Rome | 3 Main Streets the Corso from Palazzo ^ Piazza or Porta^ Porta | del Popolo; anciently the Via Lata terminating | at the Citadel. Stada del Babuino ends at the | Piazza di Espagna. Stada Ripetta. Via Populi | leading to the Tiber, Strada Giulia della Lungara | Squares | Piazza Navona. St Agnes. and Fountain by Bernini | Piazza d’Espagna steps to della Trinita | di Monti. Pincian hill a good view of Rome | Monte Mario & the Janiculum | Piazza Colonna. Monte Citorio Curia Innocen – | ziana 12 | Piazza. 8 | 10 Obelisks. | The Egyptian of Sesostris from Heliopolis used in | a Gnomon by Agustus in the Campus Martius | Piazza Citorio. Piazza del Popolo formerley in | circus of Nero St John de Lateran | Fountains | Navona. Lateran Porta Maggiore Felice | Piazza dei Termini. Viminal Mount supplied | by Claudian Aquduct nearly opposite across byond | the Tiber on the brow of Janiculum 3 cascades of water, | Piazza di Trevi aqua Paolo Paolo Fontana Trivi | celebrated. Corinthian column Naiad and Neptune
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s various Roman sketchboks, such as the Piazza d’Espagna, the panoramic views from Monte Mario and the Janiculum, the Claudian Aqueduct and the Trevi fountain.
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.385–6.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.1–14.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138765, accessed 25 April 2024.