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 Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) and New Prisons, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Bridge of Sighs beyond the Ponte della Paglia 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) and New Prisons, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Bridge of Sighs beyond the Ponte della Paglia’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
The Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and New Prisons, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Bridge of Sighs beyond the Ponte della Paglia 1840
D31307
Turner Bequest CCCX 16
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 16’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page and folios 15 verso opposite, 17 recto, 18 recto and 57 recto (D31306, D31309–D31310, d31388) focus on the Bridge of Sighs,1 and are perhaps the last pencil drawings Turner made in Venice. This and D31306 show similar, rapidly observed prospects north from the Bacino, centred on the Ponte della Paglia over the entrance to the Rio del Palazzo, with the elevated Bridge of Sighs beyond, linking the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) on the left to the New Prisons on the right.
See under D31306 for other Bridge of Sighs views. 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

1
See Finberg 1930, p.172.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and New Prisons, Venice, from the Bacino, with the Bridge of Sighs beyond the Ponte della Paglia 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-palazzo-ducale-doges-palace-and-new-prisons-venice-from-r1196097, accessed 25 April 2024.