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 > Venice to Ancona Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Bridge and a Distant Town, ?between Bologna and Forlì, with Hills Beyond 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Bridge and a Distant Town, ?between Bologna and Forlì, with Hills Beyond’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
A Bridge and a Distant Town, ?between Bologna and Forlì, with Hills Beyond 1819
D14568
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 40
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘Allnutt | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘40’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 40’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg considered this slight view as continuous with folio 43 verso opposite (D14567; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 39a),1 although they both tail off a little towards the gutter and may show different aspects of the same bridge, or nearby scenes. There are also sketches of unidentified humpbacked bridges on the recto and folio 45 verso (D14566, D14571; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 39, 41a). The present drawing is distinguished by the towers and spires of a town in the distance.
Cecilia Powell has commented on the relatively uneventful phase of Turner’s journey between leaving Bologna and reaching Rimini (folios 43 recto–60 verso; D14566–D14598; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 39a–56a);2 for his overall route south-east between Bologna and Ancona, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.518.
2
See Powell 1984, pp.89–90, 465 note 98.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Bridge and a Distant Town, ?between Bologna and Forlì, with Hills Beyond 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-bridge-and-a-distant-town-between-bologna-and-forli-with-r1186304, accessed 25 April 2024.