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 ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Piazzetta and Column of St Theodore, Venice, from under an Awning outside the Libreria Sansoviniana, with San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Piazzetta and Column of St Theodore, Venice, from under an Awning outside the Libreria Sansoviniana, with San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Recto:
The Piazzetta and Column of St Theodore, Venice, from under an Awning outside the Libreria Sansoviniana, with San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino 1840
D32419
Turner Bequest CCCXX 80
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Partial watermark ‘J H’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 80’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Do. [i.e. ditto: The Piazzetta]’): ‘Looking twds. S. Giorgio’.1 Along with folio 77 verso (D32414), folios 79 verso–82 verso (D32418–D32424) show various aspects of the Piazzetta, all made with the pages turned horizontally. Here, the view is south-south-east from the west side of the square, with the heavily articulated classical arcade of the Libreria Sansoviniana on the right, and the column of St Theodore on the Molo waterfront overlooking the Bacino towards the campanile and dome of San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of the same name beyond.
Two figures in robes or cloaks and ornate hats are introduced in the foreground, and the scene is framed by indications of a fringed awning, of the sort still suspended from the ground-floor arches today. The matching column of St Mark appears to be lightly indicated on the left, although the upper left appears disrupted by loosely rendered marks which may indicate the awning moving in a breeze.
The view on folio 79 verso opposite (D32418) is similar, albeit on a smaller scale to allow for the inclusion of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) on the left. See also the disjointed panorama in the opposite direction, towards the Piazza (St Mark’s Square), on the verso and folio 81 recto (D32420–D32421).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1032; see also Finberg 1930, p.170.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Piazzetta and Column of St Theodore, Venice, from under an Awning outside the Libreria Sansoviniana, with San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino 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-piazzetta-and-column-of-st-theodore-venice-from-under-an-r1196653, accessed 20 September 2024.