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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Rome, Turin and Milan Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tower, with Other Buildings. Pombioa. Huomo [Turner] 1828-9

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tower, with Other Buildings. Pombioa. Huomo [Turner]’ 1828-9
Folio 2 Verso:
A Town with a Church, Bridge and Figure, near ?Pombia 1829
D21667
Turner Bequest CCXXXV 2a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 90 x 144 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Pom[?bia]’ towards bottom left, and ‘Houmo | Hom’ towards bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner oriented the sketchbook horizontally to produce this rough view of a town. It features buildings to the left, a church belltower and single-arched bridge at the centre, and a steep incline to the right. In the foreground is a single figure. Federico Crimi proposed as the subject a bridge over the River Ticino near ‘Pombia’, north-west of Milan, perhaps the meaning of Turner’s lower inscription.1 As Crimi noted, this subject is a reminder of the artist’s enduring interest in bridges, viaducts and other such structures, and indicates a certain familiarity with the river network between Lombardy and Piedmont.2
1
Crimi 2007, p.37.
2
Ibid.
Technical notes:
The lower (outer) edge of the page is uneven, possibly through a manufacturing fault.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘A Town with a Church, Bridge and Figure, near ?Pombia 1829’, catalogue entry, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/a-town-with-a-church-bridge-and-figure-near-pombia-r1210308, accessed 17 April 2025.