J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ten Copies of Engravings after John 'Warwick' Smith from 'Select Views in Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
Ten Copies of Engravings after John ‘Warwick’ Smith from ‘Select Views in Italy’ circa 1819
D13963
Turner Bequest CLXXII 17
Pen and black ink on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by the artist in black ink with titles and details of views (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of a series containing small pen-and-ink sketches of topographical Italian views. As Finberg first identified, these are copies of the engraved plates in John Smith, William Byrne and John Emes’s, Select Views in Italy, published in two volumes between 1792–9. The images derive from the following compositions (in sequence left to right and top to bottom):
i
Bologna, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by Thomas Medland. 1 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Bologna’ top centre.
ii
Palazzo Publico, at Bologna, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by Thomas Medland.2 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Palazzo Publico, Bol’ top centre. This scene depicts Giambologna’s statue of Neptune in the Piazza Nettuno about which Turner commented ‘by J of Bol. good figure Ex legs’, see folio 4 (D13938).
iii
Dogana, on Pietra Mala, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by William Byrne.3 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Dogana on Pietra Mala’ top centre and ‘road’ bottom centre.
iv
In the Apennines, between Bologna and Florence, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by William Byrne.4 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Bol and Florence | Le Machere’ and ‘Inn’ top centre. This refers to an inn called Le Maschere, mentioned in the text accompanying Plate 5 as the only one in the vicinity ‘with tolerable accommodations’.
v
In the Apennines, between Bologna and Florence, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by William Byrne and J. Schuman.5 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Le Machere’ bottom left. This refers to an inn called Le Maschere, mentioned in the text accompanying the plate as the only one in the vicinity ‘with tolerable accommodations’. It is not clear why Turner should have labelled the drawing thus, since the view itself was taken from another inn ‘further in in the environs of Caffagiolo which was thought to convey something more characteristic of the surrounding scenery’.
 
vi
Florence, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by Benjamin Thomas Pouncy.6 The text accompanying this plate mentions the celebrated bronze doors of the city’s Baptistry and may be the source for Turner’s awareness that they were the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, see folio 15 (D13959). In this instance Turner’s copy of the composition is not very accurate. He has omitted for example the dome of Santa Maria Novella and has not indicated enough space between the bridge and the Church of San Lorenzo.
vii
Il Ponte Vecchio, at Florence, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith from a sketch by William Cowper and engraved by William Byrne.7 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Il Ponte Vecchio Florence’ top centre. Turner’s copy has omitted the small tower on the far right hand side of the composition.
viii
The Vale of the River Arno, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by John Emes.8 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Arno 14 M from Flo Cor Perugia’ top centre. This note derives from the information contained in the accompanying text which states that this view was chosen 14 miles from Florence on the road via Cortona and Perugia.
ix
Cortona, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by Benjamin Thomas Pouncy.9 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Cortona’ bottom centre.
x
Lake of Perugia, drawn by John ‘Warwick’ Smith and engraved by Benjamin Thomas Pouncy.10 Inscribed by the artist in black ink ‘Lake of Perugia | Passignano Toricella’. This note derives from the information contained in the accompanying text which states that ‘Torricella stands on the opposite side of the lake and on the margin of the water may be observed the picturesque village of Passignano, through which the road passes to Torricella’. The subject of the image is Lake Trasimene in Umbria, commonly known in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as the Lake of Perugia.
For a general discussion of Turner’s sketches from Select Views see the introduction to the sketchbook.
1
John Smith, William Byrne and John Emes, Select Views in Italy with Topographical and Historical Descriptions in English and French, vol.I, London 1792, pl.1.
2
Ibid., pl.2.
3
Ibid., pl.3.
4
Ibid., pl.4.
5
Ibid., pl.5.
6
Ibid., pl.6.
7
Ibid., pl.7.
8
Ibid., pl.8.
9
Ibid., pl.9.
10
Ibid., pl.10.
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ten Copies of Engravings after John ‘Warwick’ Smith from ‘Select Views in 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-ten-copies-of-engravings-after-john-warwick-smith-from-r1138784, accessed 29 March 2024.