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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner An Italianate Landscape Sketch 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
An Italianate Landscape Sketch 1819
D15247
Turner Bequest CLXXX 80
Pen and black / brown ink and wash on white wove paper 101 x 161 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXX 80’, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this landscape sketch is unidentified although it appears to show a view of Italian countryside with a villa on a hill, and part of an aqueduct or bridge. Turner has executed the study in pen and ink and wash without any indication of pencil under-drawing, which suggests that it may be an imaginary composition or capriccio. The sepia tones and compositional elements are perhaps reminiscent of the principles of Italianate landscape which Turner had studied in the work of Claude Lorrain (circa 1600–1682). The seventeenth-century painter was very much in Turner’s thoughts during his 1819 trip to Italy (see Tate D14663; Turner Bequest CLXXVII 6), and whilst in Rome he found the opportunity to view several examples of Claude’s work in famous collections such as that of the Doria-Pamphili and the Barberini families (see Tate D16848–D16850; Turner Bequest CXCIII 80–81).

Nicola Moorby
December 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘An Italianate Landscape Sketch 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2009, 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-an-italianate-landscape-sketch-r1139659, accessed 29 March 2024.