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 Hills and Buildings, ?with Trieste Beyond 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hills and Buildings, ?with Trieste Beyond’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 63 Verso:
Hills and Buildings, ?with Trieste Beyond 1840
D30122
Turner Bequest CCXCIX 63a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 127 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘tman’
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in pencil ‘63a’ top left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This mountainous, and possibly coastal subject view featuring scattered buildings, drawn with the page turned horizontally, likely shows the Trieste area, and possibly the city itself in the distance, although much urban development since makes the subject and viewpoint uncertain. This is one of a sequence of views in and around the Adriatic port, made working inwards from the back of this sketchbook; see under folio 57 recto (D30109).1
The page number ‘63a’ is inscribed at the corner appears to be in the neat, rounded hand of the Turner scholar C.F. Bell (1871–1966), who contributed to research on the Bequest.
1
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, ‘Hills and Buildings, ?with Trieste Beyond 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-hills-and-buildings-with-trieste-beyond-r1196972, accessed 25 April 2024.