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 and Botzen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Venice Canal Bridge with a Distant Tower 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Venice Canal Bridge with a Distant Tower’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
A Venice Canal Bridge with a Distant Tower 1840
D31898
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 55
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘55’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXIII – 55’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rapid, very slight sketch was made with the page turned horizontally. It shows a bridge spanning a canal, perhaps with another framed within the arch, and a tower beyond, but the subject appears too generic for ready identification.
At the bottom right is an inverted bridge, in the foreground of a separate canal view extending across the gutter from folio 54 verso opposite (D31897).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Venice Canal Bridge with a Distant Tower 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-bridge-with-a-distant-tower-r1196793, accessed 25 April 2024.