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

The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘Entrance to Venice from Chioggia’, the work’s picturesque title as established in the nineteenth century): ‘An absurd title | The canal of the Giudecca with San Giorgio and the Zitelle on the right’.1 In his revised 1930 listing, Finberg gave the subject as ‘S. Giorgio from the Giudecca’.2

The prospect is along or off the Fondamenta della Croce on the Isola della Giudecca, about half way between the churches of the Redentore and the Zitelle, the former being behind the viewpoint, looking east-north-east along the waterfront to the latter on the right. Beyond the Giudecca at the centre are the church and monastery complex of the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, with a simplified view of the Riva degli Schiavoni waterfront across the Bacino to the north-east, with the dome of San Zaccaria and the slender distant spire of San Francesco della Vigna.

The viewpoint of several contemporary colour studies looking in other directions is similar; compare Tate D32139, D32145 and D32146 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 2, 8, 9). The last looks back to the Redentore, and is in a similar combination of fairly detailed pencil work and warm washes. There are additional touches of black here for the boats moored across the glassy waters, activating the space. Lindsay Stainton has suggested that D32146 and the present work were ‘perhaps even sketched on the same day’ and ‘may also have been coloured on the spot’;3 as Sarah Taft has observed, they ‘hint at the tones of the buildings at a particular moment.’4

D32141 (CCCXVI 4) shows a similar view to the present one, from far enough further off to include the Redentore in the foreground. Ian Warrell has noted them in relation to the oil painting Giudecca, la Donna della Salute and San Georgio, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841 (private collection),5 within a year after this visit; yet ‘he patently did not return to this reference material’, as the Zitelle is shown in the painting with a spurious stretch of roof introduced between the twin bell turrets on the north front and the dome, whereas the immediate juxtaposition shown here is correct.6 The same applies in another exhibit that year, Depositing of John Bellini’s Three Pictures in la Chiesa Redentore, Venice (private collection; engraved in 1858: Tate impression T05192),7 where the Redentore is shown even less accurately (see under D32141).

Technical notes:

The pale washes have been rubbed away from both domes; this highlighting effect is less noticeable than it would have been originally, as the sheet has darkened somewhat owing to prolonged display as part of the touring Fifth Loan Collection selected from the Bequest. A strip of brighter paper and fresher colour is evident down the right-hand edge, which was evidently protected by a mount in those years.

This is one of numerous 1840 Venice works Ian Warrell has noted as on sheets of ‘white paper produced [under the name] Charles Ansell,1 each measuring around 24 x 30 cm, several watermarked with the date “1828”’:2 Tate D32138–D32139, D32141–D32143, D32145–D32147, D32154–D32163, D32167–D32168, D32170–D32177, D35980, D36190 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 1, 2, 4–6, 8–10, 17–26, 30, 31, 33–40, CCCLXIV 137, 332). Warrell has also observed that The Doge’s Palace and Piazzetta, Venice (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin)3 and Venice: The New Moon (currently untraced)4 ‘may belong to this group’.5

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘17’ top right; stamped in black ‘CCCXVI – 40’ over Turner Bequest monogram below centre; inscribed in pencil ‘D32177’ bottom right.