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 Ruined Bridge over the River Ronco near Forlì 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Ruined Bridge over the River Ronco near Forlì’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Verso:
A Ruined Bridge over the River Ronco near Forlì 1819
D14579
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 45a
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Roncho’ top centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The two drawings here and those on folio 50 recto opposite (D14580; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 46) appear to show various aspects of a ruined bridge, here labelled ‘Roncho’ (sic), which presumably spanned the Ronco between Forlì and Forlimpopoli (see under folios 44 verso and 46 recto respectively; D14569, D14572; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 40a, 42), on Turner’s south-eastwards route, where a modern bridge now carries the road. Turner presumably crossed the river nearby by other means.
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);1 for his overall route south-east between Bologna and Ancona, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
See Powell 1984, pp.89–90, 465 note 98.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Ruined Bridge over the River Ronco near Forlì 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-ruined-bridge-over-the-river-ronco-near-forli-r1186315, accessed 23 April 2024.