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

Turner made several sketches in and around Ventimiglia, a town on the Ligurian coast, approximately four miles from the border with France. The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the two landscape studies on this page, turned horizontally, as variant vistas from the same location: the eastern perimeter of the walls of the old town.1

The example at the top depicts the view looking north towards the cathedral and the church of San Giovanni Battista (also known as the Oratorio dei Bianchi), with its two belltowers (now partially demolished), and on the right, the bridge crossing the River Roia. At the bottom is a sketch recording the view from the same location but looking west along the coast as far as Menton, Cap Martin and Monaco, which Turner has annotated ‘Mon’. Visible on the left is the old town (known as Ventimiglia Alta, due to its lofty situation) with the Forte San Paolo in the centre at the top, and the Fortezzina dell’Annunziata near the shoreline at the bottom.

For further sketches of Ventimiglia see folios 30 verso–32 verso and 33 verso–35 verso (D21190–D21194 and D21196–D21200). See also the Coast of Genoa sketchbook from 1838, when Turner revisited this location (Tate D21283; Turner Bequest CCXXXII 7).