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 The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Fondaco dei Turchi, and the Church of San Geremia in the Distance; Studies of ?Gondoliers 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Fondaco dei Turchi, and the Church of San Geremia in the Distance; Studies of ?Gondoliers’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Verso:
The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Fondaco dei Turchi, and the Church of San Geremia in the Distance; Studies of ?Gondoliers 1840
D31300
Turner Bequest CCCX 12a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is to the west along the northern reach of the Grand Canal, with the dome and campanile of the church of San Geremia (see folio 11 verso; D31298) outlined in the distance. On the left is the unrestored arcade front of the Fondaco dei Turchi, still in the ramshackle state recorded in the 1819 Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate D14484; Turner Bequest CLXXV 88a).
This is the first of a short sequence of sketches made while travelling south-east along the canal between the Canale di Cannaregio and the Rialto Bridge (folios 12 verso–15 recto; D31300–D31305). The slightly scrambled details in the right foreground may indicate features of the grand Renaissance façade of the Ca’ Vendramin Calergi (the Casino). The palace is seen in the middle distance in another view in the same direction from further east on folio 13 recto opposite (D31301).
At the top left, apparently made with the page inverted relative to the foliation, are what seem to be studies of a figure or figures in stooping or reaching motion, perhaps gondoliers or boatmen.
As noted in the sketchbook’s Introduction, the Venice views on its early pages are intermingled with German sketches from Turner’s return journey.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice, with the Fondaco dei Turchi, and the Church of San Geremia in the Distance; Studies of ?Gondoliers 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-the-grand-canal-venice-with-the-fondaco-dei-turchi-and-the-r1196090, accessed 11 May 2024.