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 Cesena from the Valley of the River Savio 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cesena from the Valley of the River Savio’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 57 Recto:
Cesena from the Valley of the River Savio 1819
D14591
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 53
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S’ at centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘53’ top left, upside down (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 53’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, Finberg considered this ‘Another view of same [unidentified] town’ as on folios 55 verso–56 recto (D14589–D14590; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 51a–52),1 but Cecilia Powell has noted it as showing Cesena.2 The prospect, which has since become very built up, is to the south-east from the Savio Valley. Turner’s bold ‘S’ at the centre probably indicates the course of the river; for views of the city on previous pages, see under folio 46 verso (D14573; CLXXVI 42a).

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);3 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, p.407.
3
See ibid., pp.89–90, 465 note 98.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Cesena from the Valley of the River Savio 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-cesena-from-the-valley-of-the-river-savio-r1186327, accessed 18 April 2024.