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 A Gondola off the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with the Ponte della Pietà and the Church of the Pietà 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Gondola off the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with the Ponte della Pietà and the Church of the Pietà’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 85 Recto:
A Gondola off the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with the Ponte della Pietà and the Church of the Pietà 1840
D32429
Turner Bequest CCCXX 85
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘85’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 85’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Folios 82 verso–87 recto (D32424–D32433), all drawn with the pages turned horizontally, form a brief sequence of views around the Bacino. Although Finberg limited his description to the ‘Shipping’1 in the foreground, including a gondola, the waterfront setting is readily recognisable. To the north towards the left is the then unfinished classical façade of the church of the Pietà, above the bridge of the same name on the Riva degli Schiavoni.
The viewpoint is similar to that used for the view south over the Bacino to San Giorgio Maggiore on folio 84 verso opposite (D32428).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1033, and 1930, p.170.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Gondola off the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with the Ponte della Pietà and the Church of the Pietà 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-gondola-off-the-riva-degli-schiavoni-venice-with-the-ponte-r1196663, accessed 19 April 2024.