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 > Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Superga, Turin, from the River Po 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Superga, Turin, from the River Po’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
The Superga, Turin, from the River Po 1819
D14215
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 36
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘36’ top right and ‘284’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Superga of Turin is an eighteenth-century basilica church which stands on a hill of the same name to the east of the city. It has long been an attraction for tourists, not least because of the exceptional panoramic view seen from the square in front of the church, looking across Turin to the Alps beyond. Indeed, prior to embarking upon his 1819 Italian tour, Turner made a watercolour of this very view based upon a drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), his collaborator for Hakewill’s Picturesque Views of Italy.1 Turner’s sketch here depicts the distant Superga from the banks of the River Po to the west. An alternative view can be found on folio 23 verso (D14189; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 22a). Surprisingly, however, there is no visual evidence to suggest that Turner actually visited the Superga himself.

Nicola Moorby
December 2012

1
Turin from the Portico of the Superga Church, 1818, watercolour on paper (private collection). See Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, no.717. See also Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A Catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.2.17, p.133.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Superga, Turin, from the River Po 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-superga-turin-from-the-river-po-r1142736, accessed 26 April 2024.