J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Anticipating later appreciation of this watercolour’s formal qualities over its perplexing topography, John Ruskin wrote in 1857, calling it simply ‘Venetian Fishing-Boat’: ‘I am not certain of the locality of this sketch; but it is a very interesting one in the distinctness and simplicity of its forms. The reason of the great prominence given to the sail of the boat is, that its curved and sharp characters may give the utmost possible amount of opposition to the absolutely rectangular outline of the buildings. The sky is very beautiful.’1

Early in the following century, when it had come to be catalogued on unspecified grounds as ‘Venice: Suburb towards Murano’,2 the Lagoon island north-east of the city, the editor and critic Charles Lewis Hind, who wrote on the Post-Impressionists, suggested that it showed ‘“the way [Turner] worked,” when painting for his own pleasure, not for exhibition – green water, violet hills, rosy buildings held together by the strength of that tawny sail – lovely.’3 His contemporary J.E. Phythian included this work among other Venetian studies he called ‘brilliant in light and colour’ and ‘impressionistic’ in the broadest sense, simply praising its ‘lovely morning light’.4

In 1974 the sheet was exhibited as ‘Venice: the Riva degli Schiavoni, with a Fishing Boat’, and Andrew Wilton suggested links to pencil drawings in the contemporary Rotterdam to Venice sketchbook (Tate D32431–D32432; Turner Bequest CCCXX 86, 86a);5 the port view of a boat sailing past San Giorgio Maggiore in the first is loosely comparable, while any resemblance between the waterfront in the second, seen east of the Bacino, and the present skyline is likely fortuitous. Wilton later considered this work in relation to other colour studies: ‘its combination of salmon-pink and green occurs in various examples from the disbound books’ (or separate contemporary sheets). Lindsay Stainton noted that ‘the aquamarine, clear blue and orange-pink colours of this study’ are also seen in those designated within Turner Bequest section CCCXVI,6 arranged according to subject in parallel subsections of the present catalogue.

Wilton suggested that these were made in ‘groups, executed together as sets of “variations” on particular combinations of colors; but whether [Turner] did so using several books simultaneously or working steadily through one book is not clear’.7 For the likelihood of the artist having used a total of two similar ‘roll’ sketchbooks, long disbound and dispersed, see the Introduction to the present book. Wilton felt that the ‘drawings themselves often seem to provide evidence that he turned from one book to another – perhaps to save time while color was drying; he certainly made most of the studies away from the motif, presumably at his hotel’.8

This last point remains debatable, but the present work has less reliance on specific topography than many of the others now grouped as this sketchbook, particularly in Grand Canal views apparently documenting the exact fall of light at particular times of day. Again, Wilton subsequently characterised this one as a ‘very generalised study’, where ‘the atmosphere of an ecstatic dream is almost palpable; the boat seems enchanted as it floats past coral palaces beneath a tender dawn sky’, albeit ‘the campanile is possibly that of S. Giuseppe di Castello’,9 often known as Sant’Isepo, towards the eastern end of the city near the Giardini Pubblici. Robert Upstone also thought the hour ‘probably shortly after dawn’.10

Stainton assumed that if Wilton were correct, Sant’Isepo would be ‘in the distance on the far right’: ‘the central campanile could thus, perhaps, be that of S. Giorgio dei Greci [off the Riva degli Schiavoni], and the dome and campanile to the right could represent S. Pietro’11 di Castello, north-east of Sant’Isepo, making this a view in that direction from the Canale di San Marco. However, if Turner intended to be remotely topographically accurate, this would not account for what appears to be a prospect across open water to the left rather than a continuation of the built-up Riva waterfront towards the centre of the city.

Ian Warrell initially noted these suggestions, restricting his comments to making a connection with an equally uncertain moonlit scene in this sketchbook (D32126; CCCXV 10), ‘which seems to depict the same buildings’.12 He subsequently developed a new idea linking these two studies to two more securely identifiable views apparently including the supressed convent of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, overlooking the south side of the Canale della Giudecca from the then somewhat remote western end of the island from which it takes its name (D32128–D32129; CCCXV 12, 13). He suggested that this and D32126 showed the equivalent point across on the north side, around the church of Santa Marta, also long supressed, then overlooking the open Lagoon but now facing extensive modern docks;13 the plain, barn-like convent church survives as an occasional arts venue, although its campanile was demolished in 1910.14 Warrell has described all four scenes as ‘characterised by sunset or twilight effects that clothe the city in a misty iridescence further frustrating attempts to pinpoint the localities represented’ noting that ‘it is very likely that Turner worked on these views away from the motif, so that while the general points of the remembered scenes were correct, some of the details might have been altered’.15

There are pencil studies of Santa Marta and its neighbourhood in the 1840 Venice and Botzen sketchbook (Tate D31851, D32853; Turner Bequest CCCXIII 31a, 32a), and in the Venice; Passau to Würzburg book (Tate D31289–D31291; Turner Bequest CCCX 7, 7a, 8). Of these, one or two of the fragmentary views on D31851 may relate to the current study; one includes a large boat passing an array of similar buildings. D31290 apparently includes the demolished campanile of Santa Marta, complete with a cupola, although the juxtaposition of the surrounding buildings does not relate directly to those shown here.

Technical notes:

Robert Upstone has noted Turner’s use here of ‘pure watercolour. The dilute emerald washes are applied with dragged strokes of a well-soaked brush to suggest reflections in the water. The clouds have conversely been made using a very dry brush.’1 The green at the bottom left is very fluidly worked, while detail in the hazy background on the left is worked in blue over blue.

At the right-hand edge are thin strips of stronger colour, likely carried over from another composition while the two leaves were still adjacent in the sketchbook.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘6’ centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over CCCXV – 9’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXV.9’ towards bottom right.

There are splashes or offsets of grey at the centre right, towards what would originally have been the sketchbook’s gutter.