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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Venice up to Trento Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Primolano and the Valsugana 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Primolano and the Valsugana’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Verso:
Primolano and the Valsugana 1833
D31624
Turner Bequest CCCXII 14a
Pencil on white laid paper, 109 x 203 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Annotating a copy of his 1909 Inventory, Finberg later suggested the settings of folios 14 verso and 15 verso–16 verso (D31624, D31626–D31628): ‘near Primolano, Val Sugana’.1
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is one of a sequence of sketches between folios 13 verso and 16 verso (D31622–D31628), overlooking Primolano and its surroundings in a narrow, rugged part of the Valsugana section of the Brenta Valley; see also folio 21 recto (D31637). The viewpoints were likely along the series of hairpin bends known as the ‘Scala’ or ‘Scale’ leading down to the town from the north-east. Here the spire of the small parish church is seen below, with the dramatic stepped profile of the cliff overlooking the river beyond to the west-north-west. Compare the variant views on D31622.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, opposite p.1005.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Primolano and the Valsugana 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-primolano-and-the-valsugana-r1203822, accessed 26 June 2024.