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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice; Passau to Würzburg Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Venice Canal with a Bridge and Distant Tower; St Moriz's Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Venice Canal with a Bridge and Distant Tower; St Moriz's Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Verso:
A Venice Canal with a Bridge and Distant Tower; St Moriz’s Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840
D31286
Turner Bequest CCCX 5a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 198 x 126 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘3’ and ‘Coburg’ top centre, and T[...]’ above left of centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, Turner initially made a slight sketch of a Venetian canal with a bridge and a distant tower, likely a campanile. The precise subject is not established, but is perhaps a side canal towards the western end of Venice between the Grand Canal (see under the recto; D31285) and the Angelo Raffaele Church (see folio 6 recto opposite (D32287).
As noted in the sketchbook’s Introduction, the Venice views on its early pages are intermingled with German sketches from Turner’s return journey. Turned upright, the page was used for a view of the Gothic St Moriz’s Church in Coburg, seen from the south-east, looking west along Pfarrgasse, as Cecilia Powell has noted.1 Several trees now stand between the south side of the church and the buildings opposite, which are shown where the drawing continues a little way across folio 6 recto opposite (D31287).
Turner’s annotation ‘3’ may refer to the upper stages of the taller of the unequal twin spires at the west end of the church, as he ran out of space at the top to depict its full height. There is a view of the west front on folio 10 verso (D31296); for the numerous other Coburg subjects in this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D31278).2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.242.
2
See also Powell 1995, pp.72, 82 notes 63 and 64.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Venice Canal with a Bridge and Distant Tower; St Moriz’s Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840 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, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-venice-canal-with-a-bridge-and-distant-tower-st-morizs-r1196076, accessed 27 April 2024.