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 Three Views on the Ligurian Coast, Including Arma di Taggia and ?San Lorenzo al Mare 1838

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Views on the Ligurian Coast, Including Arma di Taggia and ?San Lorenzo al Mare’ 1838
Folio 10 Verso:
Three Views on the Ligurian Coast, Including Arma di Taggia and ?San Lorenzo al Mare 1838
D21290
Turner Bequest CCXXXII 10a
Pencil on white wove paper, 157 x 98 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Larma’ bottom right of top sketch, and ‘Sand’ bottom right of middle sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three sketches of coastal views. As indicated by Turner’s inscription, ‘Larma’, the uppermost study depicts Arma di Taggia, a small town Italy’s Ligurian coast, situated immediately to the east of San Remo, the subject of the drawing on the recto (D21289).1 The view is taken from the west, and includes the Torre Arma di Taggia, a local landmark, as well as the Torre Saracena, a sixteenth–century coastal watchtower.
Beneath this design is a rougher drawing showing a steep section of the coastal road, with a distant tower visible on the right.
The third sketch, occupying the bottom third of the page, is inverted. Geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has suggested that this drawing represents a distant view of Porto Maurizio, a former town which is now part of Imperia (see folio 17 recto; D21298), seen from the west.2

Nicola Moorby
October 2018

Revised by Hayley Flynn
June 2025

1
See 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.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Three Views on the Ligurian Coast, Including Arma di Taggia and ?San Lorenzo al Mare 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/three-views-on-the-ligurian-coast-including-arma-di-taggia-and-san-lorenzo-al-mare-r1213467, accessed 17 September 2026.