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 ... > Trieste, Graz and Danube Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Trieste; Buildings in Hilly Landscapes 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Trieste; Buildings in Hilly Landscapes’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
?Trieste; Buildings in Hilly Landscapes 1840
D30003
Turner Bequest CCXCIX 1a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 127 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘Town, with buildings on hill, beside river’): ‘Trieste’.1 With the page turned horizontally, there are at least two sketches here, if not three.
Across the centre the prospect seems to be south to the Castello di San Giusto, overlooking Trieste, towards the right; some of the details are slightly rendered, but seem to include the two towers of the church of San Nicolo dei Greci, with the lighthouse on the harbour mole beyond to the south-west. It is not clear whether the buildings and trees at the bottom left are in the foreground of the same view, as the area has seen much development. For other Trieste views, see under folio 57 recto (D30109).
At the top right is a looser drawing of mountainous scenery, perhaps with a castle on the right. This was presumably made on Turner’s journey through rugged terrain as he travelled north-east towards Vienna (see under folio 40 recto; D30076).
1
Undated MS note by Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.967.
Technical notes:
There is staining towards the top left and right from the leather pencil loops secured under the front paste-down (D41222).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Trieste; Buildings in Hilly Landscapes 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-trieste-buildings-in-hilly-landscapes-r1196853, accessed 24 April 2024.