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 12 Recto:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13953
Turner Bequest CLXXII 12
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘12’ botom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 12’ bottom right
 
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:
To Frascati Monte Catone Prata Porcia | Lake Regillus Mt Agidus Preneste – | Horatii and Curatii supposed to be Cneius | Pompey Aricia or La Riccia ancient | [?hill]-town. some arches and circular building | Via Appia. 1 mile Madonna de Galloro. | 2 miles hence Gensano and Lake of Nemi | Nemus Diana. Castle and Town on a rock | Monte Giove Jovis Monte Artemisio. | Fountain of Egeria Palace of Nero Trajan | [?vessel] Abbey of St Paolo Roca del Papa | on the Alban Mount above a plain Campo | Annibale and Abby and Convent now occupies | the scite of the Jupiter Latiaris | Antium Nettuno its port ^Ostia^ Asturia and Mouth | of Tiber on one side Astura and Circe’s promontory | the other Ruins of Pompey, Villa Ostia ^once^ port | of Rome, mouth of the Tiber. hills wooded 6 Miles | Paterno Tower once Larintium | Road to Naples. Albano Velletri at Torre d tre | Ponti some remains of columns inscriptions &c | Pontine marshes 30 M River Ufens & Amasenus | Rock of Anxur Volscian Mt Cora Sezza Piperno | Wall and two Doric Temples at Cora. | River Amasenus Terachina Terracina on the | [?eminence] of Anxor still remains 2 Squares the | temple of Jupiter and Apollo popes palace | 6 Miles S of Terracina a defile called Passo di Portella. Tower and Gate Barrier Torre del Epitaff | io
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of the journey between Rome and Naples.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s sketchbooks, such as Frascati, Ariccia, Gensano and Lake Nemi, Torre Tre Ponte, the Rock of Anxur at Terracina and the Passo di Portella, see Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXII) and Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXIV).
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.392–3.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.263–307.

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-r1138774, accessed 19 April 2024.