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 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Reichard's 'Italy', with Sketches and Inscriptions by Turner c.1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Reichard's 'Italy', with Sketches and Inscriptions by Turner’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Reichard’s ‘Italy’, with Sketches and Inscriptions by Turner c.1819
D36331
Turner Bequest CCCLXVII
Copy of M. Reichard’s Itinerary of Italy; or, Traveller’s Guide Through That Interesting Country (London 1818) bound in black leather with ‘REICHARD’S ITALY’ in gilt lettering
6 unnumbered preliminary pages, 3 preliminary pages numbered vi–viii and B, 386 numbered pages numbered 2–388 and 4 unnumbered subsequent pages. The book includes a frontispiece illustration, ‘View of St. Peter’s at Rome’, plain endpapers and a title page.
Approximate page size 140 x 85 mm
Printed by Samuel Leigh, 18 Strand, London
Annotated by Turner in pencil with small drawings and notes (see main catalogue entry)
Numbered 410 as part of the Turner Schedule in 1854 and inscribed by one of the Executors of the Turner Bequest, Charles Lock Eastlake, in pencil ‘4.10 Book containing 15 slight | pencil sketches. | C. L. E.’, with some slight pencil marks
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXVII’ inside front cover, bottom left
Inscribed in red ink ‘ccclxvii’ inside front cover, upper right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of two printed books listed after Turner’s conventional sketchbooks towards the end of Finberg’s 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory on account of containing sketches and annotations by Turner. It is Turner’s copy of Heinrich August Ottokar Reichard’s 1818 Itinerary of Italy, which had been translated from part three of the ‘Guide des voyageurs en Europe’. Turner used the book during his first tour of Italy in 1819 (for more information, see the Introduction to the tour within the present publication).
The other book mentioned above, Tate D36330 (Turner Bequest CCCLXVI), is a trade copy of the 1827 edition of Samuel Rogers’s Poems; this was annotated and sketched in by Turner during the planning of his vignette watercolours to be engraved for the 1834 edition. As Matthew Imms has noted in his catalogue entry for the Rogers book, Turner also used an interleaved copy of Nathaniel Coltman’s The British Itinerary (London, circa 1810), known as the Devonshire Coast, No. 1 sketchbook (Tate D08362–D08362, D40902–D40906, D41520, D41521; Turner Bequest CXXIII–250), during his 1811 tour of the West Country.
Reichard’s Itinerary of Italy (1818) was published by Samuel Leigh who also produced similar guidebooks in the same format, including an English edition of Alois Wilhelm Schreiber’s The Traveler’s Guide down the Rhine (London, 1818), which Turner also purchased.1
This Reichard book was not recorded in page-by-page detail by Finberg and bears a single Tate accession number rather than one for each recto and any versos with drawings or inscriptions, as is standard with Turner’s sketchbooks; it is also dealt with here within one continuous entry. As set out below, it includes various notes and sketches, as well as marks against passages of interest.
A contents list of those pages of the book including either inscriptions or sketches by Turner is set out below. ‘[annotation]’ precedes those pages with marks or inscriptions; ‘[drawing(s)]’ precedes any with sketches, which may also be accompanied with other notes. Almost all are in pencil and assumed to be by Turner. The legibility of both the inscriptions and small scattering of slight sketches is variable, but transcriptions and descriptions, so far as possible, are laid out below, commencing with the endpapers and inside covers before dealing with numbered pages.
The recto of the front plain endpaper is inscribed in pencil in the upper centre, ‘J M W Turner’; alongside some slight pencil marks. The verso of the front plain endpaper is inscribed with a list of numbers, perhaps page numbers, in pencil: ‘12 9 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 –20– | 10 10’.
On the recto of the back plain endpaper Turner made the following list of artists, which fills the top half of the page: ‘[?]Botticini | [...] | D[...] | Ant[...] | [?]Carracci = draws well | Caravaggio | [?]Brill | Botticelli drawing | Castelli B[...] | [...] | [...] Soldaini’. See below for Turner’s note of the artist Pietro Benvenuti, whose night piece Turner made a colour diagram from: John Gage has suggested that the ‘Soldaini’ noted here may refer to Benvenuti’s pupil, Raffaello Soldaini.2 On the bottom half of the page Turner made a very slight sketch, the subject matter difficult to distinguish.
On the verso of the back plain endpaper: a slight sketch of hills.
On the paper on the inside back cover Turner sketched a structure with a distinctive pitched roof (lower left) and added the following inscriptions: ‘[?]Boccoracci | Calso | [?]Boccalini | R | B | [...] v’ on the left hand side; ‘35,6.0.P | Pietro Benvenuti | 1812 | B’ on the right hand side.
[drawing] p.[5]: pencil drawing of two figures in long garments, the figure on the left in darker attire, which is annotated ‘brown’ in addition to an illegible word; the figure on the right is in lighter attire topped with a dark hat: this sketch is annotated ‘white [...]’.
[annotation] p.2: inscribed ‘5.50 | 1.50 | [0.]80 | [=] 7.80’, centre of upper margin; inscribed ‘200 | 35 | [...]’ right in upper margin. This page of Reichard’s guide details the ‘Tarif for Post-Horses in the Lombardo Venetian Kingdom’ and Turner’s calculations appear to relate directly to the cost of his travel.
[annotation] p.3: ‘4’ and ‘9’ inscribed next to the upper text detailing fares to Venice; ‘8 3 4, 100 [?] 8 10 10 | 16 [?]’ inscribed underneath the middle passage of text detailing fares to Novare, Verceil, Turin, Lyons and Paris.
[annotation] p.50: a small pencil mark in the left margin indicates a passage of text referring to the Ambrosian Library in Milan, which, as John Gage has pointed out, held Leonardo’s notes.3
[annotation] p.56: a faint pencil mark indicating a passage of text referring to Masaccio’s frescoes in the Chapel of the Virgin in the ‘Church of Carmes’ (this refers to the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence); Reichard’s text also highlights bas-reliefs by Foggini and the cupola by Luca Giordano.
[annotation] p.58: inscribed in pencil along the top margin: ‘Piero di Cosimo 1441 [?]d. 1521 | paint[er?]. very good’; inscribed in pencil within the left hand margin: ‘Raffael del Santo [or possibly del Garbo] 1524 P[...]; inscribed in pencil along the bottom margin: ‘P[...] 1529 | [...]’. One of the latter inscriptions has previously been read as ‘Pontormo’, another artist Turner’s notes on this page may reflect interest in in addition to Piero di Cosimo and Raphael (or, according to Gage’s reading of Turner’s hand, Raffaellino del Garbo)4. This page and page 59 of the printed text relate to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence: Turner appears to have annotated the pages during a visit there.
[annotation] p.59: Inscribed in pencil in upper margin: ‘Memmi 1333 [...] | 1440’; inscribed in pencil in lower margin: ‘[...] Carr[...] | 1492 1550’.
[annotation] on publisher’s insert (a folded map) between p.98 and p.99; notes regarding travel inscribed on the outer folded edge in pencil: ‘[..?] to [..?] | Lyons to Turin 243 | 341 | Paris to Lyons 352 | London to Calais 98 | Calais to Paris 179 | 277 | 693 970 | [...] to Bologna 149 | [...] 52 | 1171 | 172 | to Rome | 345 | 140 | 1483’. Some slight pencil marks were also observed on the map itself, but as this insert is very fragile it could not be fully unfolded at the time of cataloguing.
[annotation] p.100: inscribed in pencil beneath a section detailing the road between Paris and Turin: ‘351 [...]’
[annotation] p.114: inscribed in pencil below the first title detailing a route by Fontainebleau, Nevers and Moulins: ‘357 [...]’.
[annotation] on publisher’s insert (a folded map) between p.130 and p.131; notes inscribed on the outer folded edge in pencil: ‘70 [...] | [...] – travelling | [...] | [...]’.
[annotation] p.151: inscribed in pencil in the lower right margin ‘373’. The printed text near the annotation relates to travelling from Paris to Milan via the Simplon Pass.
[annotation] p.161: inscribed in pencil beneath a passage detailing travel between Geneva and Milan towards the bottom of the page, ‘245’.
[annotation] p.176: inscribed in pencil beneath printed text about the road from Geneva, at the bottom of the page, ‘19 | 8 | 7 | 152.’ (left) and ‘3 [?]Milan | 5 [...] | 5 ½ [...]’.
[drawing] p.194: pencil sketch of Alpine mountain scenery, with buildings in the foreground. Turner made the sketch at the top of a page that begins a new section of printed text detailing the road from Alexandria [Alessandria] in the book’s Turin–Plaisance section.
[drawing] p.212: very rough pencil sketch, perhaps of buildings with towers, which Turner made in the upper margin of a page containing information about Bologna; the printed text on the page mentions the towers of Bologna as well as the palaces of Zambeccari and Sampieri.
[annotation] p.240: some printed text in this section about Verona, the ‘castle of St. Auge’, is underlined in pencil; directly to the left of this line of text in the margin a ‘1’ has been added in pencil; beneath this in the left margin are the pencil numbers ‘2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7’, which possibly refer to the monuments of Verona mentioned in corresponding lines of the printed text. These are: the gate of Porta Palio; the gate of Porta Borsari; the gate of ‘Porta del Foro’; the Arco dei Gavi; and the amphitheatre.
[annotation] p.241: pencil numbers ‘8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12’ inscribed in the right hand margin of the page, which may possibly refer to places in Verona mentioned in roughly corresponding lines of the printed text. These are: the Bevilacqua Palace; the Palace of the Council, or Palazzo del Consiglio; the palaces Canossa, Verzi and Pellegrini; Verona Cathedral; the church of St. Anastasia.
[annotation] p.242: numbers ‘13’ and ‘14’ inscribed in pencil within the left margin; as with the annotations on the previous two pages these may possibly relate to the places mentioned in the roughly corresponding lines of text, which in this case are in the ‘Veronetta’ part of the city, a name bestowed on the area by Napoleon. Turner’s written number ‘13’ may indicate the ‘remains of an ancient edifice’ referred to in the text, while his ‘14’ could correspond with paintings mentioned by Reichard, including by Veronese, in the church of San Giorgio.
[drawing] p.256: Turner made a very rough pencil drawing in the margin above the page’s title, perhaps denoting ruins. The passage of text concerned details the road from Bologna, and mentions Cento and the artist Guercino, as well as Ferrara.
[drawing] p.260: Turner added a number of rough sketches and annotations to this page of printed text, which is concerned with travel between Bologna and Venice. In the upper margin Turner made the following drawings and annotations on the upper part of the page: drawing of skyline, with buildings seen across water and boats and a ship in the foreground, possibly Venice; inscribed in pencil top right ‘[...]’; inscribed in pencil near the middle of the top margin S. [?]Clemente [possibly referring to Isola di San Clemente in the Venice Lagoon, which could be the subject of one of the sketches]; inscribed in pencil in the left of the upper margin ‘[...]’. Turner made the following drawings and annotations on the lower part of the page: pencil sketches showing two boats or ships with sails; inscribed in pencil in left margin ‘D[...]’.
[drawing] p.261: Turner added a panoramic format sketch of a skyline in the upper margin, on a page of printed text concerned with travel between Bologna and Venice. The sketch appears to show buildings seen across water and may, like the sketches of the previous page, show Venice. Turner added two annotations in pencil to the upper right of this sketch, which apparently read ‘T[...]ello’ [perhaps Torcello] and ‘S[...]sa’. On the lower part of the page, a pencil line, which may not be purposeful, crosses diagonally across a paragraph of printed text discussing the town of Rovigo.
[drawing] p.288: in the upper margin and across the text in the upper paragraph of this page Turner has made a pencil drawing showing buildings, a bridge and a river, with hills in the background. There is an illegible word in the upper right. The drawing continues onto p.289.
[drawing] p.289: continuation from p.288 of a pencil drawing of a scene showing buildings, a bridge and a river with hills.
[drawing] p.308: in the top margin Turner has made a rough sketch of buildings, possibly fortifications, on a hill. The printed text close to the sketch discusses Assisi, a town Turner appears to have briefly sketched during his 1819 tour (see Tate D16634; Turner Bequest CXCI 88 a); although only speculative, it seems possible that this sketch also relates to the town. The landscape sketch continues onto p.309.
[drawing] p.309: continuation from p.308, comprising landscape elements from the right–hand side of a rough sketch of buildings, possibly fortifications, on a hill.
[drawing] p.330: this page includes some rough pencil sketches, including details of buildings or ruins (upper part of page) and a sketch of a tower or column with landscape elements (lower part of page). Turner also wrote in pencil in the upper margin: ‘10 per poste’ (this page of printed text details the route between Ancona and Rome in terms of ‘posts’).
[drawing] p.331: there is a rough pencil drawing, perhaps outlining the contours of a hilly landscape, in the right margin.
[drawing] p.332: Turner made two pencil drawings of pots in the left margin of this page, apparently ceramic vases seen in the pharmacy of the Palazzo Apostolico in Loreto (these are referred to in the page’s text as ‘300 vases painted after the drawings of Raphael and Giulio Romono’). There are some other rough sketches around the text about halfway down the page. Turner also made the following inscriptions in pencil: in the top hand margin ‘17? Farma[?]go [?]Barromerotti’; sand | saint? | bad; inscribed above printed text about halfway down page ‘313; inscribed lower left, in the margin, ‘1500’.
[drawing] p.333: two pencil drawings of pots (see entry for previous page), one approximately halfway down the page, the other in the left margin. Turner also made the following annotations in pencil: in the upper margin ‘14 5 6. 400 anne | 500’; in the right hand margin ‘1500’.
[annotation] p.[335]: inscriptions in ink alongside a list of posts on the route between Rome and Naples ‘69.12’ and ‘57 ¼ 10 P’; inscribed in lower margin ‘5 ¾ in posts’.
[annotation] p.349: a pencil mark has been added to the right margin, apparently indicating the early stages listed on the route between Bari and Brindes.
[drawing] p.377 verso: a rough pencil sketch of a façade in the centre left of the page, and a rough sketch of a landscape in the bottom part of the page. Turner primarily used this page to write notes, which, although for the most part are now barely legible, appear to describe a building. Inscribed in pencil: ‘The [?]Ferrara Casa in | [?]basalt interior of Rough Blackened | [?]stone; like the [...] [...] of the | house. With [?]two [?]Door one | [...]on the [...] and the left | [?] the [?]End, below the hall [?] | [?] the [...] window, the | [s...] [...] Lombard ‘l B[...]| the [...] | one by the [?]island [?]wind as by the | [?]castle [...] [..?], in gusto’.
[drawing] facing p.377 verso, on torn out insert edge: a pencil plan or sketch of an architectural structure, possibly a theatre. Tate Research Cataloguer Matthew Imms has suggested the plan may show the Palladio Theatre, or Teatro Olimpico, in Vicenza. Turner visited Vicenza during his 1819 tour, making sketches of the city in the Milan to Venice Sketchbook (see Tate D14374, D14375, D14376–D14378; Turner Bequest CLXXV 32, 32 a, 33, 33 a, 34). James Hakewill (1778–1843), whose guide to Italy Turner also consulted, wrote a note for Turner of possible relevance: ‘Vicenza – | Get a guide to show you | Palladios house and some of | his Palaces.’ (Tate D13901; Turner Bequest CLXXI 23).
Notes by Turner relating to Reichard’s Italy appear elsewhere in the Bequest within the Route to Rome Sketchbook (see Tate D40674 and Tate D13859; Turner Bequest CLXXI 1), which also includes advice from Hakewill.

Elizabeth Jacklin
September 2018

1
Powell 1991, p.122.
2
Gage 1987, p.101.
3
Gage 1987, pp.216, 254 note 30.
4
Powell 1987, pp.96, 205 note 30.

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Reichard’s ‘Italy’, with Sketches and Inscriptions by Turner c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-reichards-italy-with-sketches-and-inscriptions-by-turner-r1195560, accessed 19 April 2024.