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 Two Views of Lake Como; Including One of Laglio from the North 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of Lake Como; Including One of Laglio from the North’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 65 Recto:
Two Views of Lake Como; Including One of Laglio from the North 1819
D14268
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 64
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Laglio’ within sketch, bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘64’ top right and ‘284’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 64’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two separate views of Lake Como. Turner’s viewpoint for both appears to be from a boat on the waters of the lake and, as his inscription indicates, the lower vista depicts the town of Laglio on the western shore. The artist is looking south in the direction of Como. The upper vista is not conclusively identified although it is likely to represent the view from the same location but looking in the opposite direction, towards Torriggia on the left and Careno on the right.
Federico Crimi has suggested that this sketch relates to a series of drawings documenting Turner’s second expedition by boat along the western coast of Lake Como, from Como in the south to Menaggio in the north, near the head of the lake.1 For further sketches of Lake Como see folio 48 (D14234; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 47).

Nicola Moorby
January 2013

1
Crimi 2007, p.28.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Views of Lake Como; Including One of Laglio from the North 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, 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-two-views-of-lake-como-including-one-of-laglio-from-the-r1142789, accessed 11 May 2024.