Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Recto:
Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 1819
D15829
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 50
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 50
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘50’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 50’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 50’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.548, as ‘On the coast; several sketches’.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.189 note 87, 491 note 32.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.79 note 25, 83 note 67.
1993
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, exhibition catalogue, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 1993, p.299 under no.49.
1994
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, exhibition catalogue, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi 1994, p.162 under no.49.
Turner appears to have travelled by boat between Salerno, Amalfi and Sorrento, sketching the towns dotted along the rugged Amalfi coast from the sea. This page contains three studies related to that trip. The largest view in the centre depicts a view of the coastline at Salerno. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread with nearby Vietri sul Mare and Raito, see folio 49 verso (D15828). Similar studies can be seen on folios 36–36 verso, 48 verso–49 (D15805–D15806, D15827–D15827).
The remaining two sketches in the top and bottom right-hand corners both depict Cetara, a small town which lies in a bay to the west of Vietri sul Mare. Visible in both views is the dome of the Church of San Pietro Apostolo and the Torre Vicereale, one the numerous sixteenth-century watch-towers which can be found all along this part of the Amalfi coast. Two further towers can be seen in the uppermost vista looking west towards the headland of Capo d’Orso. Further views of Cetara can be seen on folio 35 verso and 48 (D15804 and D15825).
Nicola Moorby
October 2010
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Amalfi Coast from the Sea, with Salerno and Cetara 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www