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 Four Sketches from the Road Between Menaggio and Porlezza; Including One of Lake Piano and Two of San Pietro Sovera 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Sketches from the Road Between Menaggio and Porlezza; Including One of Lake Piano and Two of San Pietro Sovera’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Verso:
Four Sketches from the Road Between Menaggio and Porlezza; Including One of Lake Piano and Two of San Pietro Sovera 1819
D14279
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 69 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 111 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue’, ‘Green’, ‘wood’, ‘[?La...]’, ‘[?Centre] grass orange brown’, ‘water all [?Ripple]’ and ‘Lac Piano’ within top sketch. Also ‘St Peters’ left-hand side of second sketch from top, and ‘Ponte St Peters’ bottom right of third sketch from top
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner crossed from Lake Como to Lake Lugano via the road between Menaggio and Porlezza, a route served by diligence which took him through the Val Menaggio (also sometimes known as the valley of Porlezza) and past the Lago di Piano (Lake Piano). This journey was part of an expedition traditionally known as the ‘Giro dei tre Lagio’ (Tour of the Three Lakes).1 Turner would have been familiar with the route through his acquaintance with James Hakewill,2 and he also made relevant preparatory notes from Eustace’s A Classical Tour Through Italy, within the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (see Tate D13961; Turner Bequest CLXXII 16).
This page contains four distinct sketches, all of which were drawn from the road between Menaggio and Porlezza. The uppermost vista depicts a view of Lake Piano and further related studies can be found on folio 70 (D14278; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 69). The middle two sketches represent variant views of San Pietro Sovera, a small village which lies to the west of the lake on the River Cuccio. In particular the second sketch from the bottom shows the historic bridge crossing the river with an adjacent watermill. The bottom sketch is not conclusively identified although it may depict a distant view of Porlezza.

Nicola Moorby
January 2013

1
Federico Crimi, unpublished notes. See also Federico Crimi, ‘J.M.W. Turner e il Verbano: Repertorio’, in Verbanus, no.30, 2009, pp.37–8.
2
See ‘View of the Lago Piano and Lago di Lugano from the Road between Menaggio and Porlezza’, 1816 (British School at Rome). See 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.2.14, p.130, reproduced.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Sketches from the Road Between Menaggio and Porlezza; Including One of Lake Piano and Two of San Pietro Sovera 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-four-sketches-from-the-road-between-menaggio-and-porlezza-r1142800, accessed 25 April 2024.