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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Italianate Landscapes and Classical ... > Colour Studies of Idealised Italianate ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner An Idealised Italianate Landscape with Trees beside Water and a Building in the Distance c.1828-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Idealised Italianate Landscape with Trees beside Water and a Building in the Distance’ c.1828-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An Idealised Italianate Landscape with Trees beside Water and a Building in the Distance c.1828–9
D25275
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 153
Watercolour on white wove paper, 304 x 490 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 153’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The pale form at the centre suggests a large building in the distance beyond the foliage and still water. Compare also several other muted ‘colour beginnings’ with dark, isolated trees (Tate D25167, D25168, D25175, D25208; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 45, 46, 53, 86). D25167, D25168 and D25208 are on 1828 paper, while the composition of D25168 has been linked to the oil painting The Loretto Necklace, painted soon after Turner’s return from his second Italian tour of 1828–9 (Tate N00509).1 He had also been working on watercolours of Italian subjects shortly before the trip.2
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.185 no.331, pl.334.
2
See Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.384 nos.726, 730, 731; also Shanes 1997, p.29.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 150 P | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII 153’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 153’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
August 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An Idealised Italianate Landscape with Trees beside Water and a Building in the Distance c.1828–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-an-idealised-italianate-landscape-with-trees-beside-water-r1185714, accessed 20 April 2024.