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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > South-Eastern France and Genoa 1838 > Coast of Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ventimiglia, from the Left Bank of the River Roia 1838

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ventimiglia, from the Left Bank of the River Roia’ 1838
Folio 7 Recto:
Ventimiglia, from the Left Bank of the River Roia 1838
D21283
Turner Bequest CCXXXII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 157 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘7’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXII 7’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the subject of this sketch, executed with the page turned horizontally, as Ventimiglia, a town on Italy’s Ligurian coast, approximately four miles from the present-day border with France.1
The view shows the town and its ramparts looking downstream from the left bank of the River Roia (or Roya, in French). Visible in the foreground of the composition is the Via Aurelia bridge and part of the town’s fortified walls. The Forte San Paolo, a local landmark, is depicted in the top right corner of the page.
At the time of Turner’s visit, this region was part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It marks the approximate half-way point of the journey described in this sketchbook, which begins in Toulon and ends in Genoa (for a detailed overview of Turner’s itinerary, see the Introduction). For further sketches of Ventimiglia, see folio 8 verso (D21286).

Nicola Moorby
October 2018

Revised by Hayley Flynn
June 2025

1
Roland Courtot, ‘Carnet de voyage de Turner: 9. Notebook CCXXXII “Côte de Génès” (1838?)’, Hypotheses, 24 August 2018, accessed 24 June 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/949.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ventimiglia, from the Left Bank of the River Roia 1838’, catalogue entry, October 2018, revised by Hayley Flynn, June 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/ventimiglia-from-the-left-bank-of-the-river-roia-r1213460, accessed 17 September 2026.