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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Adriatic Coast with Ancona in the Distance 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 67 Recto:
The Adriatic Coast with Ancona in the Distance 1819
D14609
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 63
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘3’ top centre, and ‘[?Vig...]’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘63’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 63’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Cecilia Powell recognised, the view is south-east along the Adriatic coast towards Ancona; there is a similar view on folio 69 recto (D14613; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 65). For Powell’s comments on the relatively uneventful phase of Turner’s journey between leaving Rimini and reaching Ancona itself (folios 61 recto–69 recto; D14599–D14613; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 57–65), see under D14599.1
Compare a slight drawing of mountains labelled ‘Ancona’ in the contemporary Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate D13860; Turner Bequest CLXXI 1a), as well as a figure study possibly made there (Tate D13930; Turner Bequest CLXXI 37).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
See Powell 1984, pp.92, 466 note 108.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Adriatic Coast with Ancona in the Distance 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-the-adriatic-coast-with-ancona-in-the-distance-r1186345, accessed 28 March 2024.