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 from the Ramparts of the Castello di San Giusto, with the Lighthouse in the Distance; ?a Castle near Graz 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trieste from the Ramparts of the Castello di San Giusto, with the Lighthouse in the Distance; ?a Castle near Graz’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Recto:
Trieste from the Ramparts of the Castello di San Giusto, with the Lighthouse in the Distance; ?a Castle near Graz 1840
D30115
Turner Bequest CCXCIX 60
Pencil on cream wove paper, 127 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...?Gratz]’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘60’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCIX – 60’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the main view is westwards, looking down from the bastions of the Castello di San Giusto to the lighthouse at the south-west end of Trieste’s harbour, with the campanile of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore down the slope on the right. This is one of a sequence of views in and around the Adriatic port city, made working inwards from the back of this sketchbook; see under folio 57 recto (D30109).1
The other way up towards the gutter is a rough skyline view of fortifications; compare the view of a mountain castle (likely the same building) at the outer edge of folio 59 verso opposite (D30114). As implied by Cecilia Powell,2 both sketches may be labelled ‘Gratz’, indicating their proximity to Graz (see under folio 41 verso; D30079), the next significant stop on Turner’s route north-east towards Vienna.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See also Powell 1995, pp.66, 81 note 18.
2
See ibid., p.240.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Trieste from the Ramparts of the Castello di San Giusto, with the Lighthouse in the Distance; ?a Castle near Graz 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-from-the-ramparts-of-the-castello-di-san-giusto-with-r1196965, accessed 26 April 2024.