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 The Dogana, Santa Maria della Salute and Other Buildings around Venice; ?The Rocca of Ravaldino (or Caterina Sforza) at Forlì; Figures Including a Man on a Donkey 1819

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  • Inside back cover of sketchbook
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Dogana, Santa Maria della Salute and Other Buildings around Venice; ?The Rocca of Ravaldino (or Caterina Sforza) at Forlì; Figures Including a Man on a Donkey’ 1819 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
The Dogana, Santa Maria della Salute and Other Buildings around Venice; ?The Rocca of Ravaldino (or Caterina Sforza) at Forlì; Figures Including a Man on a Donkey 1819
D40897
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘Allnutt | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?cl... | ...]’ bottom right, beside figures, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top right is a slight drawing of the domes of the church of Santa Maria della Salute and the porch of the Dogana, looking west from the Bacino; below are overlapping views of other buildings, including perhaps the church of San Giorgio Maggiore and the buildings around the Piazzetta; they may all be recollections of the sites studied in detail in the first quarter of the sketchbook (see the Introduction) and the contemporary Milan to Venice book (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXV).
With the page turned vertically, at the other outer corner is a cluster of sketches including the back view of a man riding a donkey, perhaps at Bologna, where the extensive figure studies on folio 90 verso opposite (D14652; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 86a) appear to have been made; for Bologna, see under folio 24 recto (D14532), and for the few other pages with figure studies, under folio 1 recto (D14489).
Again with the page turned below is the slight outline of a fortress with distant towers. This may be a view or recollection of the medieval Rocca of Ravaldino (or Caterina Sforza) at Forlì, with the city to the north, as seen on folio 44 verso (D14569; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 40a).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Dogana, Santa Maria della Salute and Other Buildings around Venice; ?The Rocca of Ravaldino (or Caterina Sforza) at Forlì; Figures Including a Man on a Donkey 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-dogana-santa-maria-della-salute-and-other-buildings-r1186389, accessed 24 April 2024.