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

This page contains advice to Turner on travelling in Italy in preparation for the artist’s first tour of the country in 1819. The author of the inscription is James Hakewill (1778–1843), with whom Turner collaborated on the engraved print project, Picturesque Tour of Italy, published 1820 (see the introduction to the sketchbook). The text was first transcribed by Finberg,1 and is repeated here with minor variations:

The comments lead on from folio 14 (D13883) and concern an instruction to try to hire a servant named Lorenzo, previously employed by Hakewill himself during his own sojourn in Rome in 1816–17. He also advises Turner to make a tour of the countryside surrounding the city. Turner visited all of the recommended locations, although instead of a single, all-encompassing tour, he seems to have made separate visits to Tivoli and the towns of the Alban Hills, see the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXII), the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXIX, and the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII). Further notes by Hakewill are on folio 15 verso (D13886) but the continuity of the content on this page can be found on folio 16 (D13887). The outlined itinerary is also repeated to some extent on folio 37 verso (D13931).