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

With the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the top quarter is taken up with an eastwards prospect of the Dolomites beyond Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron), seen in the right-hand half of the view on folio 1 verso opposite (D31598), looking south-east down the valley of the River Adige (Etsch). On the present page the focus is the broad valley of the Isarco (Eisack) east-north-east towards Bolzano (Bozen), dwarfed by the jagged peaks beyond, as seen from around the point where the modern Via Oltradige bridge crosses the Adige; see under D31598 for further discussion. The view towards the city on folio 17 recto (D31629) appears to be from a similar point.

Used the other way up, the rest of the page is filled with notes of place names and calculations, probably financial, and typical of those scattered through Turner’s touring sketchbooks:

The apparent ‘f’ at the end likely indicates the local florins, reflecting the Austrian governance of Venice and northern Italy at that period. There are related ad hoc notes on folio 1 verso opposite (D31598) and its recto. As Finberg noted,1 ‘Bassano’ (del Grappa), what was likely intended as ‘Primolano’, and ‘Levico’ (Terme) are on the second half of Turner’s route winding north-west from Venice to Trento along the course of the River Brenta, latterly through the Valsugana. Primolano is also noted in the brief itineraries on folios 10 verso and 81 recto (D31616, D31754), along with Levico on the latter page. See the Introduction for drawings of all three elsewhere in this sketchbook.