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

Turner rarely made extensive written notes during his travels, preferring instead to rely on sketching as the primary means of recording a journey. The inside front cover of the Ancona to Rome Sketchbook, however, contains an unusually long and evocative passage describing his general impressions of the landscape between the towns of Loreto and Recanati, in the Marche region of Italy. The inscription, which has been jotted down in pencil, reads as follows:

Turner’s observations of the terrain just outside of Ancona focus primarily on colour and the appearance of the light. His appreciation of the qualities outlined here owed a great deal to his knowledge of the work of Claude Lorrain (circa 1600–1682) and Richard Wilson (1714–1782) and it is clear that the hills, olive groves and views of the Adriatic sea he experienced in this part of the world, fulfilled many of his expectations regarding archetypal Italianate landscape. In particular, he was most keen to find evidence of the Claudian ideal within the passing countryside. On a sketch of the nearby town of Osimo within this same sketchbook he triumphantly noted ‘The first bit of Claude’, celebrating the moment when he first spotted a vista which resonated with the work of the French Old Master, see folio 6 (D14663).

Beneath the inscription, Turner has sketched two rough landscapes which due to their uncertain lines were almost certainly drawn from a moving carriage. The views are identifiable only from the accompanying inscribed place names, ‘Osimo’ and ‘Macerata’.