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 Harbour and Lighthouse from near the Castello di San Giusto 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trieste Harbour and Lighthouse from near the Castello di San Giusto’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 63 Recto:
Trieste Harbour and Lighthouse from near the Castello di San Giusto 1840
D30121
Turner Bequest CCXCIX 63
Pencil on cream wove paper, 127 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘tman’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘63’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCIX – 63’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is south-west to the mole and lighthouse of Trieste’s harbour from the west side of the elevated Castello di San Giusto. Later developments and trees make the exact viewpoint uncertain. The left-hand side is shown twice, with a detailed view taking up about half the page, reprised in outline above on a smaller scale to allow for the inclusion of the horizon and the lighthouse. Operational from 1833, it still stands on its castellated base at the southern end of the harbour, but was superseded in the 1920s by the monumental Faro della Vittoria, north of the city.1
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).2
Above, at the outer edge, are slight studies of small boats and figures, presumably recorded at the harbour.
1
See ‘Fanale – Lanterna’, Istria on the Internet, accessed 23 April 2018, http://www.istrianet.org/istria//architecture/lighthouses/trieste-lanterna.htm.
2
See also Powell 1995, pp.66, 81 note 18.
Technical notes:
There is staining at the top centre from the leather pencil loop secured under the rear paste-down (D30129; Turner Bequest CCXCIX 67).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Trieste Harbour and Lighthouse from near the Castello di San Giusto 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-harbour-and-lighthouse-from-near-the-castello-di-san-r1196971, accessed 20 April 2024.