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 > Marseilles to Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Monaco from the North 1828

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Monaco from the North’ 1828
Folio 21 Recto:
Distant View of Monaco from the North 1828
D21173
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Mon’ centre left
Inscribed in red ink ‘21’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 21’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Turner’s inscription ‘Mon’ suggests, this sketch, with the page turned horizontally, represents a distant view of Monaco, seen from the elevated position of the ‘corniche’ road to the north (seen winding around a sharp corner on the far left-hand side).1 Turner has condensed a large and complicated vista into a more simplified composition with the bay and rocher of Monaco on the left, rising to the high promontory known as the Tȇte de chien and the ‘village perchée’ of La Turbie on the right. An additional thumbnail sketch near the top left represents a separate study of the Rocher of Monaco (Rock of Monaco).2
1
Finberg 1909, p.709, and Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.2
2
Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.4, as ‘Monaco’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
Technical notes:
A few millimetres appear to be missing beyond a jagged diagonal at the bottom right corner (the top right as foliated). While this may be a loss incurred during Turner’s use of the sketchbook, it could well be part of the unfinished edge of the original sheet folded and trimmed to form the present gathering; compare the much larger ‘missing’ sections of the preceding leaf, folio 19 (D21169–D21170).

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Distant View of Monaco from the North 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2017, revised by Hannah Kaspar, 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/distant-view-of-monaco-from-the-north-r1209851, accessed 20 April 2025.