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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Naples: Rome. C. Studies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bay of Naples from Posillipo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bay of Naples from Posillipo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Bay of Naples from Posillipo 1819
D16107
Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 19
Pencil on white wove paper, 257 x 404 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘19’ bottom right, descending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVII 19’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples is taken from the coast of Posillipo to the south-west. Visible along the shore are a number of the historic villas and palaces which characterise this part of the coast, including in the centre, the Palazzo Donn’Anna, see folio 5 (D16092), whilst in the middle distance is the city of Naples with the heights of Castel Sant’Elmo rising above the headland of Castel dell’Ovo. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be a point on the coastal road of Via Posillipo, near the villas of Roccaromana and Martinelli (near present-day Piazza San Luigi). Related views can be seen on another sheet within this sketchbook is folio 7 (D16094), and also in the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D16075; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 84). The neo-classical structure in the top right-hand corner of the composition remains unidentified, although it may be the same building which appears in another sketch (Tate D16074; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 83a). The
Technical notes:
Long detached from the Naples, Rome C. Studies sketchbook, this sheet was perhaps once folio 19 (see the concordance in the introduction).
Verso:
Not visible. Stuck down to mount.

Nicola Moorby
November 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Bay of Naples from Posillipo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bay-of-naples-from-posillipo-r1132366, accessed 26 December 2024.